Sticks and Stones
by mimma
Summary: Stupid to say- to point out about a waterbender, but Aomine had eyes like the ocean, deep, and dark, and cold, like a giant weight was pressing upon you, dragging you into it's depths, leaving you gasping for air. (The Avatar: The Last Airbender AU of Kuroko no Basuke. Epic, ongoing, endless.)
1. Book 1: Chapter 1

**Book One: Bones**

Really, Momoi would have said that the day everything changed was when Dai-chan came into the house carrying an unconscious firebender over his shoulder.

"Here," he said, and dumped the stranger on the ground in front of their house. Momoi was practising with her fans while Kuroko sat on the bench and read, watching the graceful and deadly motion of her arms and, as was the perpetual state of their life, waiting for Aomine to get into trouble.

Tetsu-kun looked at the body, looked at Aomine, and cast her a speaking look.

Momoi sighed. "Dai-chan," she said. "If you've killed someone, you shouldn't bring them back here. We can't deal with corpses."

"He's not dead," said Aomine, irritably. "I'm not _stupid_. I just- beat him up."

"Who is he?" said Kuroko, poking at him with a stick. He was breathing, which was reassuring.

"A firebender," said Aomine, whipping up a drink through the window from inside the house, soaking his head.

"Anything else?" said Kuroko.

"My arm hurts," said Aomine. "He got me." In illustration, he lifted his arm. A long heavy burn was already healing, and there was the general smell of soot and smoke. Kuroko frowned. Aomine did not do his own laundry.

"Anything relevant," said Kuroko, patiently. The firebender looked to be in only slightly worse shape than Aomine, unconsciousness aside, and looking at his face, Kuroko concluded he was about their age.

"Eh," said Aomine, and threw water onto the stranger's head. "I didn't ask."

"You just started fighting?" Momoi said, eyebrow raised. "Just like that?"

"He started it," said Aomine.

Kuroko and Momoi both stared at him. "No, really!" Aomine protested. "He challenged me when I told him I was a waterbender. Then I kicked his ass."

"Challenged," said Kuroko, skeptically.

"He said 'Fight me'," said Aomine, feeling unfairly maligned. "I don't know how it could have gotten any more clear than that."

"Maybe you've been out in the sun too long," Momoi said. "Firebenders don't wander onto the island and challenge other people for no reason."

"He's not bad," said Aomine. "Maybe he's one of those weird people who travel around challenging other fighters until they get stronger, like, to train or something. Maybe he's having a strength journey."

"That doesn't happen in real life," said Momoi, patiently. "But he does look like he's been on the road a while."

Kuroko splashed some more water onto the firebender's face by the simple expedient of turning his face to the side, and then smacking his hand into the pool of water that had formed. "He's coming around."

.0.

The firebender introduced himself to them as Kagami. And as for Aomine's story...

"Pretty true," said Kagami, wincing as Kuroko moved over his limbs, checking to make sure nothing was broken. "You're better than I expected. Er. Thanks for letting me in here."

"Leaving you out there to die would have somehow become my fault," said Aomine.

"Don't be silly," said Momoi, ignoring this. "We don't mind at all."

"You're really travelling the world and fighting benders?" said Kuroko.

"A little bit of both," said Kagami, and winced as he tried to run a hand through his hair. "Came down through the Fire Nation and was just...going south."

"Looking for benders?" said Momoi. "Dai-chan is our only one in this house, though."

"Good benders," he said, and transferred his gaze to Aomine, fidgeting in the corner. "You're pretty good."

"Aomine-kun is the best waterbender in the village," Kuroko said. This was true, in a village of mostly earth and water, with their lone firebender being the proprietor of the lone fire nation cuisine restaurant on the island, a nice older man who mostly used his bending to light the pipes of his customers. Better benders went away to study, usually to the south pole, or they did not train much beyond that.

Aomine said, "I'm the best waterbender in the world."

Kagami lifted an eyebrow. "So you said. I'd rank you up there, but I can't see how you can possibly know or be sure of that. You're too full of yourself."

"The Avatar told me," said Aomine, smugly. "He's been all over the world, he should know."

And then Kagami's eyes lit up and he said, "_The Avatar?_"

.0.

Aomine's version of how-we-met-the-Avatar went: Kise? Yeah, he passed through here a while back and he was doing that bender thing too and so he came and found me- and then I kicked his ass. He's been following us around like a puppy ever since. He keeps trying to copy my style of bending. It's not happening. I guess he's all right. Tetsu and Satsuki like him, spirits know why.

Kuroko's more measured version: Kise-kun occasionally visits with us when he passes through this area. We're on the way from the mainland to the Southern Air Temple, so he often overnights here and then flies on in the morning. His training to become the Avatar has only recently been completed. Aomine-kun gets very excited when Kise-kun visits us. His visits are very lively.

Momoi said: Dai-chan you're always so unclear! He came to the Island during his training when he was on the way to the Southern Air Temple, but that was because we're on Kiyoshi Island and he used to _be_ her, so obviously he was interested in our history and all that! And then while we - the girls- were talking to him because I'm a Kiyoshi warrior, Dai-chan came up and wanted to know why I was taking too long and then because Dai-chan is really weird it turned into a bending battle and then I stopped them and I said I didn't care which of them won but the food was getting cold, and we'd only just exchanged for the fresh buns from auntie, so we went back to eat. And now he's our friend! He's very nice and brings us presents when he comes by.

Momoi paused, and looked at Kagami expectantly. "Er," he said. Well. He guessed that was an explanation. Even he could see that Aomine was something out of the ordinary among benders, among all the waterbenders he'd ever met. The Avatar cared about...bending, he supposed.

"Kise-kun will probably be passing through again soon," said Kuroko.

"Would he give me a fight?" said Kagami, arrowing in on the important part. "Not- just, you know. I'd like to."

"_You_ want to fight the Avatar?" said Aomine.

Kagami bit back a sharp retort. Aomine had beaten him, after all. "The Avatar has to be good at bending," he pointed out. "It's the job description."

All three of them looked at each other. Their gazes seemed to communicate to each other that a plot to assassinate the Avatar would be more subtle and between the three of them and also Kise, they could probably handle it.

"Maybe?" said Momoi.

"Probably," said Kuroko.

"Just beat up on him until he does," said Aomine. "That usually works."

.0.

"Sure!" said Kise brightly. "I'm always up for a little sparring."

After a few minutes of flaring, brilliant fire, Aomine snorted and yelled, "KICK HIM IN THE FACE."

"AOMINECHI NO INTERFERING," Kise called back.

"SHUT UP," yelled Kagami.

"Kagami-kun... is quite good," said Kuroko, squinting. "I don't know much about firebending, though."

"Kise's not really trying," said Aomine.

"You know firebending?" said Momoi, looking at him sideways. Sometimes- all the time- it was good to take Dai-chan down a couple of pegs.

Aomine watched Kise flip himself over Kagami's head, easy, too easy, too smooth. Kise all damn over. "I know Kise." He moved his arm, restlessly. The wound was already gone, but the echo of it lingered in the stretch of his skin. Billows of dry air fluttered out at them and Aomine remembered the terrible scorching heat on his face, the whip of light. Kise had never been really trying against him, either, if that was what _real_ firebending was like. And Kagami _had_ come at him seriously, once Aomine had shown him he could, eyes set and focused, bending sharp and deadly. Kise was already working harder at his firebending than Aomine had ever seen him, and hadn't yet reached for one of the other elements. But he would, he'd have to, Kagami was pushing him now, and had his timing now, and every flip or dodge was followed by a strike, Kise didn't have time to avoid, he was going to have to-

With a stomp, Kise earthbent right below Kagami's feet, throwing him off his stance and sending the firebender teetering. Kise jumped back, just in time to deflect with air Kagami's kick, sent trailing fire over his head mid-fall as he flipped himself back upright with his arms.

Kagami was _used_ to this, to different styles of bending. Kise said as much as he...turned and ran, snatching up his staff from where he'd laid it against a tree to spar with his hands free.

"Ki-chan," said Momoi, disapprovingly.

"Oi," snarled Kagami. "Are you running-"

Kise laughed, ran up the trunk, and then came down _on_ Kagami, staff-first. Kagami thrust up an arm wreathed in flame to block, but Kise's air-reinforced blow forced him down, then back, and blew him half across the clearing.

"Just getting serious, Kagamichi," said Kise, but his eyes were sparkling.

"What- Kagamichi? Wait, no- be serious all the time, dammit," said Kagami, covered in dust, picking himself up.

"He likes you now," called Kuroko.

"Isn't that nice?" said Momoi, her sharp eyes tracking every motion of their fight, the openings, the guards, their attacks.

Kise spun the staff and settled into a loose, easy stance. "But I am serious," he said. "Kurokochi, where did you _find_ him?"

If Kise had time to talk, he wasn't being anywhere near serious, thought Aomine, but it did seem to him serious enough, looking at Kise fighting from the outside for once. Kise was no slouch. They'd never fought properly after that first time, that first incredible struggle, but maybe that was only to be expected.

Kagami threw a few punches and with them fireballs, trying to gauge when best to dash into the Avatar's now-extended range. Kise batted them all aside, and then had to spin to avoid one coming in at exactly eye height, Kagami's knee coming in from his temporarily blind side. Kise dropped and continued on with his motion, dragging the butt of the staff along with him in an arc; the earth moved. Kagami staggered backwards. Kise moved quickly- one blow of air, an uppercut of fire with his free hand, his leg coming up smooth and whip-fast to strike Kagami under the chin.

Kagami hit the ground hard enough to bounce. Kise put his foot on Kagami's arm, pinning it, and pointed his staff at Kagami's throat, nudging the skin. "Serious enough for you?" he said.

Kagami laughed, a little rusty around the strikes to his head. "You got me," he admitted, and took Kise's hand when Kise reached to help him up.

Aomine's heart was racing, and his eyes gleamed with all his fervent interest. Satsuki shook herself out of the fight and glanced sideways at him, wary. "Kise," he said. "Kise, Kise you bastard. You never fight _me_ like that."

"No," said Kise, and looked at Aomine with his battle-eyes, the sharpness he usually hid away in frivolity. "With you, I'd be perfectly happy never having it be serious. They've only just got me trained up, you know."

Aomine stomped his foot and crossed his arms. "That's not fair," he said.

"Is he really that good?" said Kagami, a matter of professional opinion, and to set against the ease with which Aomine had overwhelmed him. "Aomine, I mean. I fought him when I first came."

"I beat him," said Aomine, unnecessarily.

"Shut up," said Kagami, cracking his jaw out.

"Aominechi is the strongest waterbender in the world," said Kise. "Momochi's pretty ferocious. And Kurokochi here is one of the most effective fighters I've ever met! You're in good company if you wanted to fight, Kagamichi."

"Don't call me that," said Kagami, automatically. "Wait- Kuroko? But I thought he couldn't bend."

"Well it's all sort of a matter of perspective, really," said Kise airily, over the sound of Kuroko saying, "Kise-kun, please don't talk nonsense and give Kagami-kun ideas."


	2. Book 1: Chapter 2

"Shouldn't you run screaming from water or something?" said Aomine, watching Kagami sit right at the part of the bay where the water covered him up to his ears, and he breathed in the spaces between push and pull. "Go sit in a volcano."

"Seen one," said Kagami, hauling himself out a few inches to snipe at Aomine, as the waterbender had thought he would. "_You'd_ run screaming. Hot enough to melt your face off."

"Oh, is that what happened to yours," said Aomine, and Satsuki, wrapped around Tetsu on the beach, giggled.

"I'm not afraid of water," said Kagami. "So you're fresh out of luck there, jackass."

Aomine pushed the sea at him. Not a lot. Just a little, in with the push and pull of the tides, dragging at his bones.

Well. Maybe a lot. Kagami surfaced sputtering, and the wave crashed up the beach and splashed Satsuki, who squealed, and Tetsu, who tightened his hold on her automatically. Sweep people out to sea _one time_, they never forgot it. Or two. Or ten. Whatever, he always saved them again, scooped them safely out of the water.

"Aomine-kun," said Tetsu. "Don't drown Kagami-kun. That's wrong."

"I've drowned before," remarked Kagami, rolling his eyes at Tetsu and Satsuki to show he was above Aomine's level, like they all liked to pretend they were. "Lived, though. Never minded it."

"The ocean loves you," said Tetsu. Kagami looked at him, surprised, and Tetsu clarified, "It's a saying. If the ocean drags you down then lets you go, we say that it loves you. It lets you live again."

Satsuki laid her head on Tetsu's shoulder. "So romantic," she said, and sighed.

"I know," said Kagami. "I knew a Water Tribe guy- he said that too. He was from the North, though."

"It's a northern saying," agreed Tetsu. "How many times has it happened to you?"

"A few," said Kagami. "Once when I was small- they'd thought they lost me, but then I opened my eyes and coughed it all up. Been shipwrecked twice since, always fun. I surf, so I go under a lot, but drowning is different."

"You are one unlucky dude," said Aomine, eyeing Kagami skeptically. "Or just careless."

Kagami shrugged. "What can I say?" he said. "The ocean loves me."

_Loves to suck out your life through your lungs_, Aomine thought about saying, but didn't, because Satsuki would get upset. "Surf?" he said instead. "You surf?"

"Yeah," said Kagami, and turned to look out at the bay. The elephant koi were moving, but Aomine wasn't hunting them today. "Waves aren't good here, though."

Aomine considered telling Kagami how stupid he was, but rather than open his mouth, he pushed a wave again at Kagami, this one huge, moving out to the ocean so that Satsuki wouldn't complain, and Tetsu give him decidedly less meat tonight. It struck him on the back of the head- engulfed him- and when he surfaced this time, spitting saltwater, Aomine grinned at him.

Kagami was quick on the uptake, once you whacked him over the head with it. He grinned too. "Got boards?" he said.

"What do you think?" said Aomine.

"I think we're going to start dinner late today," said Satsuki, but she stood, and stretched all the inches of her glorious figure. Aomine was rarely so obliging. "In the boatshed, Kagamin. Let's go."

.0.

Sometimes Aomine was a huge asshole, selfish and lazy and capricious, vicious as sea-salt spray right in the eyes- but sometimes he did things like this, like whip up all the bay just so that they could play on it, moving in and around them with his own board of ice and dipping Kuroko and Momoi out of the water, raising Kagami's waves higher and higher until he was racing Aomine as much as the ocean, the wind in his hair.

"It's weird that there's no one else here," said Kagami. "I mean, it's a great day, you'd think the other villagers would come down. Not a lot, but _some_."

"Oh," said Momoi, and twisted her long rope of hair over her shoulder. "That's because of the Unagi."

"What's the Unagi," said Kagami.

Kuroko put his hand over his eyes, expressively.

On cue- on _fucking_ cue- the water at the mouth of the bay erupted, and Aomine whooped and raced off to it, the waves rising behind him churning up the ice that formed and collapsed in his wake.

"Nothing to worry about," Momoi said, airily. "Dai-chan can take care of it, it's just that it makes some of the others nervous to play here. Kagamin, we should get to the shore now until it's over. Come on, race you!"

"What the hell," said Kagami, but Momoi was already moving, and the ocean boiled around his legs, and Kagami _moved_, blasting behind him gouts of fire until he crawled up onto the beach spitting water and turned around to see Aomine playing keep-away with a sea-serpent. It's shining body arced high over the water, and the elephant koi fled in all directions; jumping the rock in their haste to get away.

"What the _hell_," Kagami said, as Kuroko and Momoi more decorously rid themselves of the consequences of their hasty exit.

"That is the Unagi," said Kuroko. "It feeds on the elephant koi, and lives in the bay. It enjoys human, when it can get it."

"And Dai-chan keeps it away from us, when we want to swim here," said Momoi brightly. "The other waterbenders help out during catching time, but other than that none of them want to risk it. They're not as strong as Dai-chan."

"It will go away soon," said Kuroko. "Aomine-kun just has to hit it a few times. The waves must have attracted it."

Kagami stared at them, brushing sand and salt off their skin, seemingly unconcerned about their friend fighting a giant sea-serpent just for kicks. "What happens if it eats him?' he asked.

"That would be a pity," Kuroko suggested very seriously. Momoi nodded, hiding a smile.

Kagami gave up.

.0.

Kise came in over the horizon just as it was getting dark, at first a small dark speck against the long thrown-out rays of the sun, then as he came closer a small dark speck doing lazy, looping whorls, moving up and down on the air currents, expanding too much energy to move, and not really to much purpose. Classic Kise.

Aomine sent up waterspouts to show Kise they'd seen him, because who else on Kiyoshi Island greeted the Avatar with waterspouts? No one, that's who, and he changed course abruptly, coming in low and fast.

Kagami floated on his board up to where Aomine had made himself an ice platform and tried to think of a way to get on it without getting himself stuck.

Aomine swatted in his direction. "Go away, you're melting my float."

"What?" said Kagami, and then looked down at his hand and put it on the ice, leaving a visible imprint.

"THE WATER IS FREEZING," called Satsuki from the shore, where she'd retreated at last after one of Aomine's waves washed a elephant koi out, leaving them to stare at it flopping around massively until Aomine pulled it back into the sea, embarrassed. Kuroko had left, possibly to start dinner now that Kise was on his way, but no one could be sure. "KAGAMIN IS THE ONLY HEAT SOURCE."

"Huh," said Kagami. "Didn't realise I was doing that."

Aomine rolled his eyes and let the platform collapse, falling to the literally icy water. "We should go," he said. "Kise will whine and whine and whine until we feed him, and Tetsu gets pissy if his food gets cold."

"Okay," said Kagami peaceably, and Aomine washed them back to the shore in huge, easy waves, so that the water lapped gently at Satsuki's toes, and deposited them at her feet without effort. They gathered up their gear and left without looking back up at Kise's shadow. He would arrive when he did, and no sooner.

"I've never surfed waterbender waves before," said Kagami, a touch dreamily. "Man, I can't believe that bastard could have done this and never said a word."

"That northern guy?" said Aomine, dripping water out his ears, teasing it out with his fingers, pulling it out of Satsuki's hair as they walked. Kagami just plain dried fast. Probably a firebender thing. "Maybe he couldn't do it good enough to get a good ride." But Aomine could, because Aomine was the greatest. Southern Tribe waterbenders passed through now and then and could never believe that Aomine had never trained under a master, and did not want to.

"Yeah," said Kagami. "I mean, Ember Island has some great waves, but these bending ones are bigger. He was a tightass, though. Probably wouldn't have done it even if he'd be able to."

Aomine wanted to say, _where are all these places? Who are all those people? How much more of the world have you seen than we have, and what's it like?_ Aomine has been to the next town over, and never spent the night off the island. Kise has been all over the world, and Kagami talked like he meant to do the same, to visit the poles and ride a sky bison, to see a dragon- to _fight_ a dragon, like the firebenders of old- and stand on the walls of Ba Sing Se.

Satsuki touched his arm, smiled. Aomine thought _no_, because how could he ever leave Satsuki, or Tetsu? What would they do without him? (What would he do without them?) All their lives were on Kiyoshi Island, and Kagami was just a drifter; even Kise only came back because it was on his way, and the Avatar never stopped moving.

"I think Ki-chan will have an announcement tonight," she said, and speak of the devil, Kise whooshed over their heads, laughing at them, calling out "Kurokochiiiiiiii," as he headed for the house, and Aomine could _hear _Tetsu's sigh, floating out the windows, along with the light and smell of home.


	3. Book 1: Chapter 3

Kise threw back his arms and sighed in satisfaction. The long blue arrows flashed in the light, and under his fringe so did his forehead tattoo. Kise had looked funnier bald, years ago on his way to the Southern Water Tribe to study with them. He had stopped at Kiyoshi Island for a history lesson about his predecessor, and found Aomine instead, untrained, unpolished, incredible.

Aomine had forgotten that Kuroko did not bother making meat when Kise came over, because Kise was a life-ruiner like that. To solace himself, Aomine stuffed seal jerky into this mouth and breathed his jerky breath at Kagami to see the horrible faces he produced. Momoi and Kuroko, experienced in his ways, had gone off to wash the dishes together while Kise, Kagami and Aomine kept each other out from under their feet.

"We should spar," said Kagami, eyeing Kise. "And no wimping out this time."

"I'm a pacifist," said Kise, not opening his eyes. "Kagamichi is _stepping on my ancient cultural beliefs._ Shame on you."

"You're the Avatar," pointed out Aomine, who had had this argument with Kise several times before, but could not resist poking at it, a dog with a bone on an open wound. "Why else do you learn to bend?"

"Battle for great justice is not the same as battle for beating people up," said Kise, serenely. This was, unfortunately for Kagami's ambitions, true to any right-thinking person.

"No battle after dinner, or no one gets dessert," said Momoi. She waggled her fingers at them threateningly.

Aomine eyed her and said, "_Your_ dessert?"

"I brought it with me from the Southern Air Temple," said Kise, reassuring them. "Momochi, _I've_ been good."

"Ki-chan is always good," said Momoi, and petted his bright head.

"Suck-up," muttered Kagami. "Fruit pies?"

"The best you've ever tasted," said Kise, smiling meaningfully at Kagami.

"Had them," said Kagami. "Western Air Temple."

"These are _better_," said Kise, with dignity. "I stole them myself."

"Should the Avatar be eating the fruits of crime?" said Kuroko, smacking Aomine's grabby hands as they tried to reach for the packet.

"Only the fruit pies of crime," said Kise, and laughed as everyone groaned.

"We have an announcement," said Momoi, when even the crumbs of the fruit pies were gone and Kise was winding the breeze around them, smiling and laying her hands over Kuroko's and Aomine's hands on the table.

"Really?" said Aomine.

"Yes," said Kuroko.

"Okay," said Kise. "Lay it on me."

"We're going to Republic City!" said Momoi, smiled.

"What?" said Aomine. "Oi, Tetsu- Satsuki- you're not-" _What about me_, he wanted to say, and felt the rush of words choke in his throat.

"Um, congratulations?" said Kagami, exchanging weird looks with Kise. Kise shrugged, and what the hell was that supposed to mean?

"All of us!" she said.

"Um," said Kagami, again.

"Yes, you too," she said. "Also Ki-chan."

"I'm not sure you can tell the Avatar he's going anywhere," said Aomine, blankly.

"I can if it's Ki-chan," she said.

"I'm not sure you can tell _Kagami_ he's going anywhere," said Aomine, reduced to being the voice of reason.

She made a face at him, but it was Kuroko who leaned over and said to Kagami, "You're moving on soon anyway, right? Come with us to Republic City first."

"I've never been to Republic City," said Kagami, and thought about it. "Sure."

"Don't agree so easily!" snarled Aomine. "Anyway- you two- I thought-"

"We've been wanting to go on a little migration," said Momoi, and tightened her hand on top of his.

"That sounds lovely," said Kise, unruffled. "It's been a while since I've been to Air Temple Island."

"We leave by the end of the week," said Kuroko.

.0.

Later that night all passed out on their sleeping pads Aomine reached over and touched the edges of Satsuki's hair curled over the pillow, like he had when he was smaller and the pull of the moon in his blood had kept him awake, roaring through his veins. Tetsu was a dark shape just past her, sleeping perfectly still on his back.

Republic City. Republic City, and for a while, maybe for good. Momoi had said some things to Kagami and Kise and had them nod semi-knowingly and offer comments, comments that Aomine had not bothered to try and understand, about rents and work and the right time of year for travel, how they had money- some money, Aomine knew, not much- and it would do to get them there.

And then.

"We'll see where it brings us," Satsuki had said, and he'd felt the weight of her gaze on him flit on and off.

But Satsuki was a Kiyoshi Warrior, and Aomine wasn't sure what that meant outside the island- so many visitors gawked at them like a show and didn't believe that the warriors kept the peace and protected the village, didn't believe that Satsuki had a wicked bite behind the painted smile. Tetsu, sure. Maybe. Tetsu didn't seem to have much, or if he did, he never talked about it. If Tetsu didn't want to go he would just have waved them off and then written very short letters. But Satsuki had been born here. All her life would be left in its ruins.

He wanted the world outside so badly he could taste it, and thought that maybe, just maybe, he was going to swallow all of her up with it. Kise had been only the start of this craving, full of stories about the places he'd been and coming back a little more new each time, with books for Satsuki and Tetsu- _books_, as if Aomine cared about reading. He liked looking at their pictures, and hearing Tetsu drone on about boring geography. And then Kagami had wandered in, young as them, but with so much more of the world inside him. Satsuki had certainly seen it coming, and acted accordingly, prepared to leave everything she loved for the sake of him.

Aomine had thought he was done worrying if there was enough of Satsuki to be left over once he had destroyed her.

"I always meant to take you away with me," whispered Satsuki, reaching over, holding his hand in hers, awake, after all, or he had woken her, or she had woken up for him. "You were meant for more than only an island on the tail end of the world. I'll show it to you, Dai-chan. We'll have everything, and we'll go everywhere."

_You were meant for more than me_, thought Aomine, but he squeezed her hand instead. "I want to ride an airship," he said.

"See a volcano," she said. "Bend the water at the spirit oasis in the North Pole. I remember." Her face creased on a yawn. "Now go to sleep. I'm tired."

"Fine," said Aomine, and closed his eyes. "But Satsuki-"

"Aomine-kun," said Tetsu, the faint note of irritation vibrating through his voice, eyes still shut. "Go to sleep."

"I was only going to say I want to bring my teeth," said Aomine.

"You could have said that in the morning," said Tetsu.

Aomine would have snapped back, but he was suddenly tired, and Satsuki's hand on his had gone slack and her breathing evened out, and he was washed under by waves of sleep.


	4. Book 1: Chapter 4

"I understand going somewhere with Kise," said Aomine. "He's the Avatar and he knows how to score free food anywhere and we won't have to put up with him that long until he goes somewhere else or something covert avatar business. But why are we bringing Kagami along?"

"Oi," said Kagami, who did indeed have something to offer: he could read maps. He was looking over what they had and trying to remember his own travels, with Kise offering little to no actual help at all.

"Kagamin is travelling too," Momoi said, reasonably. "Why shouldn't we go together?"

"We barely know him," said Aomine. "He could be a serial killer, like on the radio. Also he eats like a komodo rhino."

"Don't you think we could handle a serial killer?" said Kuroko, appearing without warning behind Aomine with a box, and scaring everyone. "You eat as much anyway."

"If Kagamichi was a serial killer," said Kise with all apparent seriousness, "Why hasn't he tried anything?"

"He's trying to lower our guard," said Aomine, reasonably. He had emptied a box of 'treasures' in front of him, and among them was what Kagami could only call shiny rocks and bones. Hung around Aomine's neck was a set of Polar Bear Dog teeth and claws, and their fellows also sat in the box. He fingered the curve of a saber-toothed moose lion's canines and set them aside in his 'keep' pile.

"I object to being called a serial killer," said Kagami, but absently, looking at them hollowing out the house. He'd left behind everything he had when he left, not that much of it had been _his_ in the way that this house was theirs. He'd also known (always known) that someday he would go back.

"You're new," said Aomine. "You don't get to object to anything."

"That's true," said Kise, folding the same blanket over and over again. "I never got any say either."

"You still don't get any say," said Aomine.

"Kise-kun would get a say if he said anything worth saying," said Kuroko. Once they had dragged out the personal stuff and left the furniture and most of the houseware to stay with the house, the heavy stuff was mostly Kuroko's books and an assortment of knickknacks provided by Kise. They discarded the souvenirs heartlessly. Kuroko was donating most of his books to the school, keeping only a few slim favoured volumes and, for some reason, the yearly almanac. None of them had much in the way of clothes, not even Momoi, whose largest contribution to that pile was her armor. She picked a few choice pieces- her arm guards, her fans, and her boots- to wear on the road. It was better to be safe than sorry. Kuroko laid out an array of water tribe weaponry, well-kept and well-made, their bone edges gleaming with use. Kise lifted some of them because apparently Kise could not ever stop being everywhere, and whistled down their length.

"Did you make these?" said Kagami, interested. He'd seen their type before, but not up close.

"We traded for some of them," said Kuroko. "I don't possess the skills for creating them. Southern Water Tribe goods come through quite often." The best metal in the house was Momoi's weapons, and Aomine needed no weapons. After a whole day of this they sat on the packaging of Aomine's, Momoi's and Kuroko's life and ate leftovers for dinner.

"Most of our food comes from stuff the Aunties give us," said Momoi, when Kagami's discomfort got a little too obvious. "Meat we get ourselves and share out, but we've always sort of been children of the community."

"Ah," said Kagami, and tried to look as though he hadn't been horrified at the thought of having literally eaten them out of their home. Aomine caught a bit of that tension and his eyes narrowed; it wasn't like they didn't get along fine on their own, hadn't gotten along fine on their own.

"If we were going at the right time I'd say we could have caught a convoy across the water," said Kise. "An air bison convoy, I mean. We never ask for much, you just have to pull your own weight for a while and not be a total asshole."

"That's how I crossed from the Fire Nation," said Kagami. "Doesn't it get a bit weird for large groups, though? They don't ask questions, but you don't like to impose."

"If they're already on the way it doesn't much matter to them," said Kise. "We're travelling light anyway, right? Sometimes I just catch up to a convoy and sleep with them then go on my own way in the morning."

"Travelling advice for people who _can't_ fly, Kichan," said Momoi.

"Air Nomad Convoys would be a good idea if we could get to them," said Kuroko. "There's safety in numbers and I like Air Nomad cooking."

Aomine made a face. Endless vegetables. "But we want to get to Republic City," he said. "Don't they go to Republic City?"

"They do," said Kise. "Just not now. I know there's one circling the North Pole, and another should have just landed at the Eastern Air Temple, but none are doing direct routes to Republic City, and none are anywhere near us right now." He sighed. "Sometimes I hitch onto Fleet ships," he said. "But that's not exactly practical."

"I wouldn't think so," said Kagami, who had very vivid memories of the battleships, massive and gleaming, all the men and women in their crisp uniforms running over it like ants- exactly like ants, stripping a corpse to the bone, united in military might and purpose, and vaguely terrifying in their gold and red. Somehow he did not think anyone- not the Avatar, and not any of them- could reasonably commandeer a Fleet ship. Well. Maybe Kise. If it was something world-affecting.

"We'll just have to manage," said Momoi, with that supreme confidence, and Aomine remembered that Satsuki had always taken in strays easily. As for him- well, he didn't _mind_ them, and Kagami was a good fight and Kise was occasional fun and Tetsu would keep them all in check.

"Yes," said Kuroko, nodding. That was alright, then. Tetsu would be careful for them. Between the three of them, they would be fine, even if Kagami and Kise wandered off again. "We'll manage."


	5. Book 1: Chapter 5

"Maybe," said Kagami, after the third night of hard-boiled eggs, charred meat, and Kise munching on grass with every sign of enjoyment. "We should swap cooking duties."

"Tetsu doesn't like Fire Nation food," said Aomine, immediately. "And when you say cooking, do you mean firebending our food? Because we're already doing that."

"No, that's just you," said Kuroko, brushing charcoal crumbs off his fingers. No one knew where Kuroko was getting all these eggs from to hard-boil, but no one protested.

"Chucking meat onto the fire is not cooking," said Kagami. Aomine begged to differ.

"You always insist on too much spice, and then you can't handle it," said Momoi.

"No I don't," said Aomine. "I just don't like the taste. Tetsu doesn't like it either, it's not bland enough for him. And Kise doesn't cook, he chucks a few leaves and sticks in a bowl and calls it dinner."

"I can't do anything about spices now," said Kagami. "I'll try."

"I bet we won't like it," said Aomine. "Can't we-"

"I could cook," said Momoi, meaningfully resting her hand on her fans.

"Kagami good luck with dinner spirits rest your soul," said Aomine.

.0.

"Where's the meat?" demanded Aomine.

"Here," said Kagami.

"Is that- how many dishes did you _make_?" said Kise.

"We've got the buns from the village we passed today," said Kagami. "Er- the leftovers from lunch, I refried them with the eggs we had, and we had some soymilk so I mixed it up into a sort of custard and then Aomine was chucking it around in the ice all day, so-"

"We have ice cream," said Kise, eyes wide. "Kagamichi, you're _amazing_, we have _ICE CREAM_."

"Well, popsicles," said Kagami, and slanted them all an embarrassed, hesitant look. "For if the food really is too hot."

"I love this," said Momoi, sighing rapturously over her bowl.

"I helped," said Aomine, between stuffing his mouth. She reached out and patted him on the arm.

"Kagamin this is delicious," said Momoi.

Kagami looked hesitantly pleased, but said, "Well, it doesn't really compare to what some people can do, and the presentation-"

"You're not cooking for court," said Kise, smiling at his bowl for some reason. "This is very good especially considering you _don't have a kitchen_."

Aomine licked some sauce off his fingers, felt very smug that it had been him who dragged Kagami back home just in time for them to go off and have him feed them on the way, and said "What are you going to make tomorrow?"

.0.

"If you were a better Avatar," said Aomine to Kise after they'd arrived in a place large enough to have a port, "You would have had a spirit guide who could fly."

"Hey," said Kise.

"A spirit guide who could fly _and_ carry us," said Aomine. Roughly five minutes into their Epic Journey it had become obvious that Aomine was going to be the problem, not so much because he set out to be any kind of problem, as much as that Aomine was _always the problem_.

They'd tried to deal with it. Kagami and Kise had worked overtime sparring with Aomine, while Kuroko alternatively backed them up when Kagami had to cook or bored Aomine stupid by discussing with Kise the flora, fauna and geography of the lands they were travelling through. Momoi and Aomine seemed to have an embargo on fighting each other ever, mostly because Momoi went straight for the chi-blocking and left Kagami or Kise flopping around yelping and waiting out the numbness, and Aomine would spend the entire time whining so loudly that people down the road asked them what had happened to the small child obviously travelling with them.

Kuroko did not grow onto Kagami as a fighter. Momoi was light and fast, with something of Aomine's ferocity in the single-mindedness of her attack, and Aomine and Kise remained Aomine and Kise, insurmountable. But _Kuroko_...

"We're here now," said Momoi. "We should see what the prices are like for passage to Republic City, and then we can be properly on our way- we're not going to _get_ much further on foot, obviously." _Not without killing each other_, her tone implied.

Kise shrugged back his shoulders and said, "I'll go with you. We should see if we can get the Avatar discount." He twinkled at them on the words, 'Avatar discount'. Aomine punched him in the shoulder. Kuroko and Kagami just walked on.

"Aomine-kun," said Kuroko. "Momoi-san wanted us to get some supplies."

Momoi nodded. "Check out the prices first," she said. "I don't know how much the passage is going to cost. We'll decide when we meet back here in an hour or so. Kagamin? Who do you want to go with?"

"I've got some business I could take care of," said Kagami. "I'll see you in an hour."

.0.

Kise dragged a spitting Momoi out of the office over his shoulder. "THANK YOU WE'LL CONSIDER THAT SEE YOU AGAIN SIR," he called, kicking the door shut with his foot.

"The NERVE of him," said Momoi. "Saying you were lying about being the Avatar! Overcharging us like that! Staring at my chest!"

Kise refrained from saying that all these things were probably going to be common occurrences from now on, not least because Momoi had shed layers on their journey north, as the weather was turned warmer. He said, "Ma, ma, Momochi. We'll go ask someone else, okay? I'm sure that lots of people are going to be getting to Republic City. We can get a better price for sure!"

.0.

"Well?" said Aomine, squinting at a newspaper he had found on the ground, sounding out words slowly as Kuroko corrected him and looked, as far as Kuroko ever expressed any emotions, anxious. They'd gone back to their starting point and were now waiting for Kagami.

"We didn't get a better price," said Kise, watching Momoi stare off into the distance and mutter numbers to herself. "Or- we did, but not much better. They must be jacking up the prices because the sanctions and entry requirements. Factor in documents and the time of year-"

"The prices in port are also... expensive," said Kuroko, a slight furrow in his brow. "I knew there would be a difference, but I had not anticipated this much of one."

"We don't have enough," said Momoi, sadly, and Aomine looked up and watched her pace, looking at her small hands resting on the fans on her belt. "Even if we sell whatever we have left..."

"We can make more," he said. It couldn't be hard, right? Between them they'd be sure to make enough. He'd do it for sure.

Kagami arrived at this moment, fighting his way through the crowd. He looked at their sad faces and said, "What happened?"

"We're temporarily embarrassed," said Kise. "I... I'm sorry, guys. I didn't know it would be so expensive for people- for normal people-" he stopped.

"We don't have enough," said Momoi, turning sad eyes onto Kagami.

Kagami sucked at his teeth, and then took a bag from his bag, and said, "How about this?"

"We can't sell your-" said Momoi automatically, then actually opened it and gasped. Kuroko's eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"Where the hell did you get all that money?" demanded Aomine. He'd never _seen _that much money at one time in his life before. He'd never touched a coin this big, this heavy, its shine unmistakable.

In answer, Kagami fished out the chain on his neck, and showed them his pendant, as if that was supposed to mean anything. They'd seen it a few times before, but never paid that much attention to it, because it seemed to embarrass him.

Kise took one look at it, and creased up laughing, bent over, using his staff to prop himself up, choking and wheezing.

"I...forgot," said Kagami lamely to this response, while Momoi and Aomine looked at Kise like he was crazy and Kuroko leaned closer to examine it, the golden three-tongued flame symbol of the Fire Nation, on a background of scarlet, and bordered in black. "Look, it's not like it's been even remotely relevant to my life for a while now. Platypus-bears would eat me whether or not I was-"

"Of the Fire Nation nobility," completed Kuroko. "That is the seal of your family, no? I've seen similar designs in books."

"Nobility?" managed Kise, heaving in deep breaths. "Not bad, Kurokochi, but Kagamichi isn't just nobility. A member of the Fire Nation Royal family has been cooking our meals and warming us up at night. Kagamichi is a _prince_."

Kagami scowled, and Aomine and Momoi sputtered and pointed and gasped. People were beginning to stare, but Kuroko prudently wrapped up the money again before temptation struck.

"I'd had you pegged as a Fire Nation rich boy," said Kise, smiling in that sly way of his, "But I can't imagine why I didn't twig to _this_. It's not like I didn't know the other prince was named Kagami. I suppose it's because you're not much like your brother."

Kagami glared at them all. "Look, shut up about it," he said. "It's not like it matters, anyway. I mean, Kise is the Avatar, and no one here gives a shit."

"Hey," said Kise.

"True," said Kuroko, yet stared thoughtfully at the seal which Kagami tucked back into his shirt. "Still, we can't take your money."

Kagami shrugged, relieved to change the subject. "Look, you guys were feeding me back on the island," he said. "Besides, if the alternative is to sit around in a money-sponge port like this while we try to raise the money on our own, we're going to be here forever."

"If you're a prince," said Aomine, frowning at Kagami, "Then what were you doing, wandering around loose like a crazy person? Shouldn't they be keeping a tighter leash on you?"

Kagami made a face. "I write home regularly," he said. "I've got an allowance anyway, and I use it to feed myself and keep moving. They don't get too worried about me, I can take care of myself. It built up."

"Oh," said Aomine. "They've got another one, and so they don't care what you do?"

Momoi jabbed him in the side, and Kagami rolled his eyes. "Whatever. The point is, we can go to Republic City now, and we don't have to sell anything or listen to Aomine and Kise whinge about hurting their lily-soft bending hands with labour until then."

"I should have realised you talk like a rich boy," said Momoi, thoughtfully. "And you do make some beautifully persuasive points." Her hands tapped on the deadly fans tucked into her sash, gifts from the time Dai-chan had fought and killed a polarbear-dog, rare in their waters, and sold the remains. Any treasures that they had left, she did not want to sell. But still- to take from Kagamin...

"He does," agreed Kuroko, and cut his eyes meaningfully to Aomine and Kise, good at bending and absolutely nothing else. They stared back as though beetle-cow butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. "Once we're more settled we can think about paying him back."

"I don't care," said Kagami. "Well, I mean, this pretty much cleans me out, but I don't need much to keep going. We're all going together. I don't need to be paid back."

"Blah blah blah," said Aomine, "The point is, Republic City, here we come, right?"

"Right," said Kagami.


	6. Book 1: Chapter 6

"Is Tetsu still seasick?" said Aomine.

"I don't know, go and check," said Kagami.

Aomine shuddered all over. "And run into Satsuki's special porridge?" he said. "Yeah, I got enough of that while we were kids. I never got better, you know," he said, pathetically, when Kagami was pretty sure Aomine had never been ill a day in his life. "The illnesses were just beaten into submission by her idea of cooking and abandoned my body in self-defence."

"Medicine isn't supposed to taste good," said Kise, absently, staring off into the horizon, the sun glinting off his hair. Somewhere, someone sighed.

"Porridge isn't supposed to move when you're not looking at it," said Kagami, who had taken one taste and then promptly escaped to the deck with Aomine and Kise sticking their faces into the sea-spray with every sign of enjoyment. Kuroko had shot him a look so full of abject and utter betrayal that Kagami still felt pangs of guilt. Still, every man for himself.

Aomine hung out over the water and watching the splash of wavelets against the side of the ship. It was a steam-ship, which meant they were making great time, but there wasn't any space at all for sparring and they all slept in one tiny cramped space. This was great for say, Aomine, Kuroko and Momoi, who cuddled up easily and then lay there and blinked innocently at the other two of them while they tried to fit themselves on the floor, but Kise and Kagami were big boys and there was not actually a lot of floor. Kise was all elbows when he slept, too, shifting all over the floor with the motion of the ship. Kagami didn't consider himself a demanding traveler, but staying out on deck all day had become much preferable to being inside, and Aomine basically lived out there, talking to anyone who came and asked him if he was going to jump, and if he wasn't to please come back inside because he was upsetting the crew. They let him, though. Waterbenders and the sea, don't get between them, etc.

There were no shortage of newspapers on the ship, plus a reading shelf with a few extremely bad novels- Kuroko had made a beeline for the latest in the Adventures of Captain Mako, extremely terrible historical detective fiction- and Aomine tended to pick them up with Kise or Kagami around to help him with some of the harder words, mostly in the articles about murders and sports. He would have asked Momoi, but between nursing Kuroko, convincing the crew and captain that Kise and Aomine were absolutely no trouble, and fending off the advances of every man- and some women- on the damn boat, her time was in short supply.

"Pro-bending sounded lame when I first heard about it," said Aomine, squinting at his paper. "But this actually seems kind of cool."

"Matches can get intense," said Kagami. "I mean, it's not- sort of- real bending, but-"

"I know some people who'd disagree with you," said Kise.

"It's too specialised," said Kagami. "And there's no airbending."

"We're pacifists," said Kise. "But there were some great things to learn from the pros."

"Tricks," said Kagami, getting heated. "I've seen pro-benders, they can't fight a damn outside-"

"Shut up, I'm still talking," said Aomine. "I was going to say, THIS," he pointed to the sum of money won in the last championship bout, four hundred thousand yuans, "THIS, sounds cool. Money. We like money, right? And we'll need it."

"My people don't really believe in the accumulation of wealth," said Kise virtuously.

"Fine we'll just split your share among us," said Aomine.

"Pro-benders don't- wait what," said Kagami. "What did you say what?"

"What share?" said Kise.

"Your share of the prize money," said Aomine, as if talking to an idiot, "When we win the pro-bending championship."

Kise stared at him. "And how are you going to do that?" he said.

Aomine snorted. "I guess I'm going to have to spell it out for you," he said. "Waterbender," pointing to himself, "Firebender," pointing to Kagami, "And you can do your earth shit, as the Avatar," pointing to Kise.

"You can't be serious," said Kagami.

"Your share of money will pay you back," said Aomine. "I dunno what I'll do with mine yet. Maybe I'll get a car."

"Aomine," said Kagami. "We can't become pro-benders."

Aomine sighed. "Fine, I see the issue," he said. "Look, don't sweat it. I'll cover for you guys as much as possible, and when we get interviewed I'll totally pretend you guys were as good as me out in the ring. There. Solved."

"That's not fucking solved!" said Kagami. "That's- one, Kise is the _Avatar_-"

"Avatar Korra was a pro-bender," said Aomine, calmly folding the paper. "There's precedent."

"Stop using words we taught you!" said Kagami. "Two, have you ever even _seen_ a match? have you?"

"We'll stop in, get a brush-up on the rules, it should be easy," said Aomine. "An hour, two, tops-"

"THREE," roared Kagami, "I am a prince of the Fire Nation. Do you want to know what kind of scandal will rocket right across the sea to there if people knew I was pro-bending? _Do you_?"

"We'll use a fake name," said Aomine. "No one cares about Fire Nation royalty anymore, anyway. You guys aren't even in the papers very often."

"Not in the Earth Kingdom papers, no," said Kise, who was in fact _very_ well acquainted with the Fire Nation court. "But still- Aominechi, you can't think-"

"Look," said Aomine. "We're good at bending, right? Even Kagami."

"I _will_ throw you off the ship," said Kagami.

"So who else is going to be better at pro-bending than we are? Who's going to be better than _me_?" Aomine's eyes sparkled with excitement, and his voice had gone low and crooning with persuasion, leaning on the railing with the wind blowing his hair into his face, irritating, annoying, irresistable.

Kise and Kagami shared a desperately resigned look.

"It's not just that he _knows_ he's manipulating us," said Kagami.

"It's that we probably weren't going to say no to him anyway, yeah," said Kise.

"Maybe Kuroko or Momoi will think it's a bad idea," said Kagami hopefully.

"I've already told Tetsu," said Aomine. "He thought it was a good idea. A great idea. Something pretty close to the idea that is going to change our lives."

"Did Kurokochi actually _say_ any of this," said Kise, "Because the last time, I was trying to tell him about the ideas I had for finding a place to stay but Asami Sato had just found the hidden weapons cache in her boyfriend's house, and when I checked to make sure he was listening I think the man _hissed_ at me. Like an animal."

"It's a great idea," said Aomine again, and went back to reading the paper.

Kagami threw up his hands and went to find Kuroko, bringing in the big guns. He _really_ didn't want to hear the lectures that would result from 'making a show of himself' for 'commoners' and the thought of it was already giving him a headache.

.0.

Kuroko wasn't in the room when he went there, and though Kagami eventually found Momoi in one of the state rooms deep into a discussion on the merits of bone edges over steel, she hadn't seen him either. His search took him into the bowels of the ship and the very real fear that the porridge had chased Kuroko to the side of the ship and then in his fever he'd thrown himself over to escape it.

He froze suddenly as he heard a noise. It sounded like... a yap.

No, no, no. _Not here_.

.0.

Aomine and Kise first perked up their ears and then watched with interest as Kagami threw himself up the stairs onto the deck, followed- at a slower but very determined pace- by Kuroko, holding in his hands a puppy.

"Kagamin?" said Momoi, worriedly.

"We have a lion-dog now," said Kuroko, walking over to them with the same slow inevitable shuffle. "The ship's dog had puppies, and I thought we could take it off their hands. Do you mind?"

Aomine and Kise turned to look at Momoi, since clearly Kuroko was not talking to them. She clutched her heart and sighed. "Tetsu-kun," she said. "Tetsu-kun, Tetsu-kun!"

Aomine peered at the dog. "Oh," he said, deciphering Momoi without any trouble. "Hey, it looks like Tetsu."

"Does it?" said Kise. "Hey, it does! It's like... a second Kurokochi!"

"Tetsu number two," said Aomine.

Momoi sagged against Aomine, who propped her up with one arm and a disgusted sigh.

"Tetsu-kun," she said, again.

"That's settled," said Kuroko, and looked pleased.

"NO IT'S NOT," yelled Kagami from the other side of the ship. "KUROKO THAT THING WILL EAT YOUR FACE OFF IN YOUR SLEEP. IT'S UNSAFE! _THROW IT OVER THE SIDE BEFORE IT SAVAGES YOU_."

"It's a _puppy_," said Kuroko.

"YOU'RE A WUSS," yelled Aomine.

"KAGAMICHI, IT'S VERY SWEET, LOOK!" Kise bent down to the puppy, where it obligingly licked his face and yapped adorably.

Kagami shuddered and looked away.

Kuroko was across the deck in a _flash_, still holding the puppy. "Kagami-kun," he said, a touch unsteadily. "Look at him. He needs us."

Kagami screamed, flailed backwards, and fell over the side of the ship. Kuroko looked over the side, owlishly, watching the ripples and bubbles of Kagami's fall.

"KAGAMIN!" cried Momoi, and then ran to the side. Kise and Aomine followed, more sedately, mentally preparing the mocking of a lifetime.

"Where's Kagamichi?" said Kise, looking over the side.

"He... hasn't come up yet," said Momoi. "KAGAMIN!"

"Kagami?" called Aomine. "It's just a dog, moron!"

"...Kagami-kun?" said Kuroko, urgently.

Aomine and Kise looked at each other. "Shit," they said in unison, then leapt over the side, pulling the water aside automatically as they went.

Aomine hit the water gasping. Fuck, it was cold, and the pain of the water hitting his skin was sharp and tingling. He felt Kise hitting the water on the other side of him, and Kagami was- fucker was _sinking_, they were never going to let him fucking forget this, _Aomine was going to kill him_ and Aomine grabbed for Kagami in huge handfuls of water, but the current fought him, twisting cruelly against him, and it had Kagami, the ocean was dragging him down, down, down.

Kagami was looking up at him, trying to fight it, but Kagami wasn't going to make it, he wasn't going to make it, Aomine wasn't _going to make_-

Momoi had her hands full grabbing both Tetsu-kun and the dog, trying to keep _both_ of them from going overboard too, and Kichan had surfaced with panic on his face and was preparing to take another go and Dai-chan wasn't up yet, but Kagamin, _Kagamin_-

Light, bright and blinding, shone up through the water, and then Aomine and Kise rose up on a waterspout, holding Kagamin between them. They tumbled to the deck- people were shouting, somewhere people were shouting, but Momoi could barely hear them over releasing Tetsu-kun and the both of them running to pound on Kagamin's chest, the thing every waterside child was taught from birth, how to pull the water from the lungs of a drowning man, how to breathe the life back into their lungs.

Kagami, gasped, coughed, and came back to the land of the living. Fucking hell, he was getting tired of drowning. He'd been only able to see shadows and lights, and had it been Aomine, who reached for him? Kise, who slid the arm around his back? Or was it the ocean, unwilling to relinquish him?

"_Idiot_," said Aomine, coughing up his own share of seawater, and pounding Kise on the back a couple of times.

The lion-dog hopped onto Kagami's chest and barked at him, licking his face.

"_Get it off_," said Kagami, between coughs.

"He's trying to help you breathe," said Kuroko, but his hand slid under Kagami's chin and petted him, apologetically.

"I can't believe you're afraid of a little thing like this," said Aomine. "We're keeping it, by the way. Tetsu and Satsuki overrule you. _Get used to it_."

"We're naming it after Tetsu-kun," said Momoi, and petted Kise. He leaned against her gratefully and looked at Kagami, and looked at Aomine, and thanked all the spirits he knew.

"The second Kurokochi," said Kise, smiling at the tiny puppy valiantly prancing on Kagami's chest.

"Nigou," said Kuroko, who liked wordplay.

"We could be the Lion-Dogs," said Aomine, running a long finger under its chin as it wiggled shamelessly between them. "Yeah, Lion-dogs. I think that's a good team name."

Momoi and Kuroko turned their heads. "What?"


	7. Book 1: Chapter 7

Aomine was at the rail bouncing subtly as they slowly, slowly docked in Republic City, holding Momoi in the circle of his arms and looking at the skyline with her, eyes dark and wondering. They weren't the only ones out there, looking at their future.

Kagami looked at Republic City and decided it hadn't changed much. "No place to stay, nothing to eat, no jobs, no skills, and vanishingly little money," he said to Kise and Kuroko.

"We've got a dog," said Kuroko.

"And," said Kise, throwing an arm around both their shoulders. "We've got each other!"

"Kise-kun constitutes a net loss," said Kuroko.

"We can crash at Air Temple Island for the first night," said Kise, ignoring this. "Airbenders never turn away a hungry guest."

They filed off the ship with their baggage- Aomine picking up the day's newspaper with an airy wave at Kagami to pay the man- and then ducked through customs and wound up wandering the streets, heading first for the park, because 'the closer to meal time we turn up, the more likely sempai won't have too much time to hit me'.

"This is nice," said Kuroko, letting Nigou down to run about the grass.

"Isn't it?" said Kise, beaming at them. Aomine settled down under a tree with his paper and opened it. Momoi sat next to him, snuggled in and read under his arm. Kagami ran a jaded eye over Republic City. He'd been much younger the last time he was here, but it didn't seem to have changed much. After a long time out in the sticks with the rest of them however, the smells of Republic City clanged in his head.

"Nicest part," said Kagami, scratching his head. Where had he stayed, last time? There was an embassy in this place; he knew that. He supposed he'd have to look into it, or the noise from home would not be pleasant.

"I like Air Temple Island," said Kise. "Also there's the giant statue of me, that's cool too."

"You would, though," said Kagami. "You're biased. And it's not of you. It's of Avatar Aang."

While Kagami and Kise casually fenced over geography, Kuroko wandered over to Aomine and Momoi were and sat down next to them in the shade.

"I'm glad we decided to come out here," said Aomine to him.

"Yes, Dai-chan," said Satsuki absently. Her fingers traced the words on an advertisement for the police force. Fighting skills? She had those. Did they really only take benders, though? She'd have to find out.

"Certainly," said Kuroko, and closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of solid ground. He was already looking better. Aomine liked to say to him that he was more earth than water, deep inside, and his sea-sickness carried that out.

A shadow fell over them, and they all looked up at once.

"Well, hi there," said a squinty-eyed guy in slick, black clothes, leaning on the tree. "New in town?"

Kuroko and Aomine blinked at him. Momoi said brightly, "Yes! Just off the boat."

He smiled at them. Kuroko and Aomine blinked at him again, this time in slow, suspicious union.

"Ah could tell," he said, beginning to grin as he took them in. Momoi's hands automatically tightened on her belt fans when the guy extended his hand to them to shake.

She took it, since he was clearly aiming at her. "I'm Imayoshi," he introduced himself. "Nice t'meet y'all."

They introduced themselves in turn. Imayoshi nodded and ran his eye over each of them. "Ah like to be appraised of newcomers," he said. "If you're ever looking for some work, Ah'm sure Ah could find something that pays well enough for you. Ah like to be helpful," he explained. "So many of you new folk- you just look so lost."

"I'm going to become a pro-bender," said Aomine, folding his newspaper. "Any help with that?"

Imayoshi's eyebrows lifted even as his eyes stayed closed. Neat trick. "Mosta those types end up working second jobs," he said. "Need ta stay out of trouble between bouts, and the bouts don't pay for themselves. In fact, my organization might have a place for a big strong bender like you, if you're interested."

Aomine's chest puffed out. They didn't _need_ work, obviously, but yeah, getting to the pot might take a bit. Wouldn't hurt to-

Kagami came over and loomed, his arms folded across his chest. "Gotta problem?" he said, gruffly.

Imayoshi flicked his eyes over Kagami- noted the Avatar signing autographs behind him- and shrugged. "No problem," he said. "Just making conversation."

"Make it somewhere else," suggested Kagami.

"All right," Imayoshi said, conciliatory. He dropped another smile at Momoi and Aomine as he left, all gleaming assurance. "Look me up anytime, if y'all interested in my organization."

Kagami made a growling noise as Imayoshi left them. "I can't leave you alone for a second," he said to Aomine.

"Tetsu and Satsuki are here," Aomine pointed out, not unjustly. Momoi continued to tap her fingers on her belt fans, thinking.

Kagami sighed. "I leave you alone for a second," he said. "And you let yourself be chatted up by some low-life gangster looking for dumb muscle?"

"Was that a gangster?" said Kuroko, interested.

"Was he promising you easy money?" said Kagami.

"Yeah," said Aomine, standing and stretching. His bones cracked out. "Invited us to look into his organisation."

"How does that not sound suspicious," said Kagami, throwing up his hands. "How does it _not_?"

"Do I look like dumb muscle?" said Aomine, pulling Satsuki up.

Kagami eyed him. He had to admit that Aomine really did not. Muscle, yes. Dumb? Certainly. Hired thug material? Sure. Henchman, no. Aomine ran the show or there was no show at all. Kise jogged up- slightly out of breath from dodging fans- and said, "What?"

"I think we should get to Air Temple Island," said Kagami. "_Before_ Aomine can get us all thrown in jail, or something equally implausible and ridiculous."

"Like the Unagi?" said Kuroko.

"You promised we would never talk about the Unagi," said Kagami.

Kise smiled his bright, blinding smile. "No need," he said. "Well, yes need, but-" he spread out his hands, and showed them an array of paper. Aomine tilted his head and squinted.

"What do those say?" he said.

Kise flourished them. "Tickets to tonight's match!" he said. "Courtesy of those lovely young ladies over there just now."

"I can't believe you being the Avatar is actually useful for something," said Aomine, snatching them from Kise's hands and looking at them with his face aglow. "This is like the first-ever time."

"Yes," said Kuroko. "Kise-kun, well done." Nigou, in his arms, barked.

"Yay, Ki-chan!" said Momoi, throwing her hands up into the air.

"You're all so me-an," mourned Kise, pouting at them.

"Did you scam those girls out of their tickets," said Kagami, cutting right to the point.

"I didn't need to," said Kise, with dignity. "Kagamichi, just because we're in the city now, there's no need to get all suspicious and-"

"I don't care," said Aomine. "What time is this match?"


	8. Book 1: Chapter 8

The glider whacked Kise _hard_ on the back of his head. "Do you live," said the other airbender, Kasamatsu, "Do you _live_ to make our lives difficult?"

"Sempaiiii," wailed Kise. "Sempai, this is not _my fault_."

"You didn't need to come along and make everything more difficult," said Kasamatsu, though he had to concede the point. It wasn't really Kise's fault that their senior official had been called out to the United Republic Council just when the caravan from the Eastern Air Temple had blown in and both their herd of flying bison and Air Temple Island's herd of flying bison had, respectively, gone into heat and gone into labour. "You would be welcome to stay," he told them. "But there's no place _for_ you stay."

Kuroko watched the flying bison huff and blow, corralled by bleary-eyed acolytes on opposing sides of the island. Nigou ran in small circles around one only a few hours old- and still three times Nigou's size- and managed to get in some playing with it before the concerned mother blew Nigou away, sending the lion-dog rolling head over heels until he collided with Momoi's shins.

"But we can eat?" said Kagami, a touch wistfully.

"Food, we've got plenty of," said Kasamatsu. "But unless you want to bed down among the bison, we've got no place for you to sleep tonight. The halls are all going to be full up with futons for the caravan. You could squeeze, but-"

"Not anything on the lines of a permanent occupation," said Momoi, frowning prettily. Kasamatsu went bright red. Gender segregation among the young airbenders, Kise sometimes felt, had a lot to answer for.

"We'll deal with it," said Kise. "We're going to be at the Arena tonight anyway, so we'll be out of your hair at least that long."

Kasmatsu nodded distractedly at him, and then turned to answer the calls of another acolyte from within the compound.

"Will there be any meat?" said Aomine.

"No," said Kise, patiently.

"Then I say we bag it and just go out to eat on the town," said Aomine.

Kagami's open palm cracked on the back of Aomine's head. "With what money?" he said. "Do you think we're going to be able to pass up a free meal when we're roaming the streets looking for a place to stay?"

Aomine clawed back at Kagami. "We'll just sleep on the streets," said Aomine. Flying Bison and also Nigou watched him and Kagami scuffle. "No prob, we've slept out in the open lots of times."

"In the city," said Kuroko. "That is called vagrancy, and is not advisable."

"It's against the law," said Kise. "And it's not safe. Really."

Aomine sighed, put-upon. "Fine," he said. "We'll eat your leaf-dinner, and then we'll go the Arena, and then we'll find a place to stay." He meditatively stared at the floating flying bison clashing horns in the air for females. "Wonder if we could get us one of those, it would be useful."

Kuroko stared longingly at a calf learning to bounce on all six of its legs, bawling as it tried to adjust to new life. It gambolled and frolicked.

"No," said Kagami, enunciating loudly and clearly. "We are not getting a flying bison. We already have a dog. Those are too young to be taken away from their mother. Is any of this getting through your thick head? Go inside and we'll get something to eat."

Aomine and Kuroko both sulked as they let Momoi usher them into the building. Inside, it was just as much of a mad house as it was outside- more, as both acolytes and airbenders rushed around and shouted. Baggage and saddles were piled everywhere there was a spare spot. A handful launched themselves at once towards the Avatar with greetings, questions, complaints, leaving Kise to swallow whatever it was he had been thinking of as he looked at Kagami.

Well. At least tonight, they still had the match. At least they could look forward to _that_. Looking at a real match might even convince Aomine pro-bending was boring- as Kagami, at least, continued to hope (the thought of his brother's upraised eyebrow remained daunting)- and that he'd be better off getting some work that didn't involve beating other people up.

.0.

Fat fucking chance. Aomine was out of his seat howling and shouting at the fighters just like the most hardcore fans, and Kagami had been caught up in it, too, yelling about bad calls and cheering at the Koala Sloth's first-round knockout of the Flower Cats. Several matches were played out over the course of the night; they'd somehow managed to come in on the qualifiers for the season, picking the teams who would be allowed to go onto the tournament. Any team could present themselves for a night and fight until they racked up enough wins to qualify. If you won all your fights for a night, you were pretty much in. If you didn't, you tried to come again next time.

They quickly discovered why the girls had been so quick to give up their tickets to Kise- most of these teams weren't _bad_, but they weren't good, either. Only a handful really were _pro_ pros, with their own uniforms and sponsorships. The real fights and the real money wouldn't start coming in until the tournament proper, and neither would the audiences. Still, it wasn't a bad show all around. The atmosphere was infectious since they hadn't had space to spar at all on the ship, and they were all antsy with the desire to fight.

Even Nigou enjoyed it.

"One of those," said Aomine triumphantly. "One of those, we win all the way, and then we're in. We've _got this_."

Aomine dragged them all into the depths of the Arena, cornering a janitor in a corridor outside a training area. He was, Kuroko noted, a terrible janitor, absorbed in moving dust from one side of the room to another.

"Hey," Aomine said. "You know who we can talk to about getting piece of that action?"

The janitor blinked at them and smiled. "Action?" he said, looking about at them all interestedly.

"We'd like to fight in a qualifier," said Kise.

"If it's at all possible," added Momoi, smiling brightly at him.

"But there are five of you," said the janitor. "And a lion-dog. You can only have three in a team." He frowned. "Otherwise that's cheating. Also animals can't bend."

"...only three of us would fight," said Kagami. "Er, we three."

The janitor looked shocked. "An airbender?" he said. "But the teams are water-fire-earth. And airbenders are pacifists."

Everyone wondered how to bring it up, and also if maybe this janitor was one of the differently-abled. Or screwing with them.

"Well, that's true," said Kise, carefully. "But I'm the Avatar, I can earthbend."

The janitor peered at him. "You _are_," he said, then brightened. "Well, that all seems to be in order. Ok, follow me, I'll see about getting you someone to talk to. Wow, we haven't had an avatar pro-bend since... Avatar Korra! She almost won a championship, you know."

He set off, and Momoi said, "That would be very nice of you, Mr- er-"

"Kiyoshi!" said the janitor, still beaming. "I work here, so I know exactly who you can talk to."

"Was that racist?" said Aomine as they trailed after Kiyoshi. "I mean, assuming that Kise was an airbender. And the rest of us."

"Kise is carrying a glider," Kagami pointed out.

"Or a very unorthodox walking stick," said Kuroko.

"How'd he know the two of us?" persisted Aomine.

Kuroko looked at Aomine's dark blue eyes and brown skin, the Water Tribe-style armbands and necklace he wore. Then he looked at Kagami's red-amber eyes, his sharp features and the _something_ in his face and shoulders, indefinable, sunk into his bones. They'd passed the statue of Fire Lord Zuko on their way to the park earlier in the day, and there was something of the same in Kagami, once you looked for it. Wandering in the wilderness, cooking their food, caring for them fiercely and with abandon, arguing with Aomine, Kagami was royalty. "I haven't the slightest idea," he said. "Perhaps he guessed."

.0.

They were relieved to find that Kiyoshi hadn't been leading them somewhere to possibly kill and eat them, despite three wrong turns, an extended lecture on the history of Republic City, and nearly diving off the match platform to block Nigou from peering over the edge at wrong turn number two. In the office, a girl and the referee from the match stood over a list of pro-bending teams, with numbers between them. They were discussing the tournament match-ups and, most reassuringly, they also looked at Kiyoshi like he was insane. A few of the other teams who'd won well tonight were there too, looking at match-ups, making sure they'd qualified. Koala Sloths were especially smug- they'd just bought their entry into the tournament next month.

"Have you people ever even pro-bent before?" said the referee. His name tag identified him as Hyuuga. He'd spent as much time during the match cursing the pun-happy announcer as he had calling fouls and points.

"Teppei, honestly," said Aida Riko, who owned the Arena. Her family was a Name in Republic City, and Riko, despite being unable to bend herself, had been immersed in the pro-bending business since pretty much birth.

Aomine shrugged.

"Look, can we or can't we," said Kagami. Please say no. Please. Please.

"Ten thousand yuan buy-in," said Riko. "Up front, cash, no crying and no refunds and if you lose you're out your ten thousand for the season."

"That's highway robbery," said Momoi, appalled.

Aida eyed Momoi for a moment. "No," she said. "Highway robbery was back in the day, when the buy-in was thirty thousand yuans and whatever else the organizer damn well felt like charging for. The ten thousand buys you participation, competition slots, lets you check out equipment before a bout." She crossed her arms. "Take it, leave it, I've got enough one-time kids champing at the bit for their shot at the glory. Once your team's got some actual wins under your belt, we'll talk."

Momoi bristled. "If you think that just because we're newly arrived you can take all our money-" she started.

"It must be nice living on Air Temple Island," said Kiyoshi to Kise while Riko's and Momoi's gazes clashed in the air.

"We're not," said Kise. "No room, so we're looking around, because there's so many of us. And the dog," he added.

"Oh," said Kiyoshi. He thought for a moment, picking up Nigou. Then he smiled. "You could stay in the attic!" he said.

"What?" said everyone.

"The attic's a free space, isn't it?" said Kiyoshi to Riko.

"Freezing in winter, sweltering in summer, no running water, ragged furniture and the roar of the crowd every night during the season?" said Riko. "I wonder why."

"...so, it'd go for cheap, then," said Kise hopefully.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Not that cheap," she said.

Kise held up Nigou. "But then the doggie would have no place to live," he said.

Riko looked at Nigou's face and visibly faltered. Kise's face failed to have any similar effect.

"Well-," she said, reaching out to touch Nigou's soft ears and mini-mane.

Kagami and Momoi immediately bent to haggle and hash out terms, sensing weakness. Aomine, who gathered that they were pretty much in, wandered off to catch the Koala Sloths before they left.

"Soft match," was his opening sally to the waterbender, washing his face in the corner over a bucket.

"Heh, yeah," he said. Winning had clearly put him into a good mood. "These prelims are all like that, though. Most of the big guns blast out against each other in the first few weeks and leave the kids to battle it out over spare slots. They're running out fast. You registering?"

"Seems like it," said Aomine. "If all the weak benders are up from now, though, should be easy to get a leg in."

"You're new?" said the waterbender. His raised eyebrow said everything about what he thought about that, but he kept his mouth shut. "Never pro-bent before?"

Aomine eyed him in turn, and conceded, "Could probably do with learning the rules first."

The waterbender laughed and pushed his hair back from his face, but his eyes were sharp as they looked Aomine over. "If you're looking for fellow waterbenders to train pro-bending with," he offered, "There's a guy I know. Down by Dragonflats District. Ask for Mako. They'll know who you mean."

"He any good?" said Aomine. Well, he might check it out.

The pro-bender smirked. "He's pretty good, yeah," he said. "Pro-bending is different from regular bending, you know. But it's got its tricks just like anything else. You want to win, you have to know them."

Aomine nodded. He'd take that, yeah. Couldn't hurt, either.

Kuroko had wandered over to the referee left at loose ends once Riko had started in on the property dispute, discovered that he too was a fan of the Adventures of Captain Mako series, and was asking about gangs. A small frown had formed on his face. "Are they much of a problem in the city?" he said, thinking of their earlier encounter. "Would it be unsafe to walk alone?"

"The Arena is neutral territory, at least," said Hyuuga. "It's not as bad as it once was- I mean, historically speaking. But some of the old ones still have a bit of a hold on the rough parts? The Red Monsoons, the Agni Kais, the Triple Threats... they're all 'legitimate businessmen' now, of course," he said, making it clear how much he believed in that. "Pretending they're squeaky clean. The police have been making a push to clear them up, though." He scratched his head, and sighed. "Kiyoshi's probably right," he said. "For your money and if you can take living there, the attic's not a bad place if you're brand-new to the city."

Kuroko nodded. The attic it was.


	9. Book 1: Chapter 9

Aida Riko was a softer touch than she seemed, or Nigou really was pulling his weight in their group. They got the attic.

Kiyoshi beamed at them as they spread out over the space to examine it. Riko had not exaggerated its charms, but beggars, as Kuroko had penetratingly observed, could not be choosers. Aomine and Kuroko had gone back to the island to pick up their bags, mostly because Kuroko wanted another look at the flying bison calves, and he obviously thought Aomine was his best ally in this matter. Kagami did not see why; _Kise_ was the airbender, and surely he was past the age when most airbenders were deemed responsible enough for a bison of their own. Kise was going to fly back over once he'd seen enough of the attic, and help them.

"I like this," said Momoi. She walked over to the large glass windows, looking out over the bay, looking out onto Air Temple Island, and smiled at their reflections in the window. Well, what of it she could see. They were dirty, and stuck when she tried to open it. Kagami walked over and helped her, and a wash of salt-scented air entered the attic. "Yes," she said. "I think we can make this work."

"I'll show you guys a bit of what you need to learn for pro-bending if you want," offered Kiyoshi. "Hyuuga, too! He's a ref, he should know what works in the ring."

Kise looked up at him surprised. "You're a pro-bender?" he said. Somehow, it was clear that in the Avatar's worldview, benders did not become terrible janitors.

"I used to," said Kiyoshi. "I'm an earthbender. In fact, I'm named after a famous earthbender. The Avatar Kiyoshi! You know her?"

"Um," said her reincarnation. "Yes?"

"I was born on Kiyoshi Island," said Momoi, rescuing him. "We used to live there."

"Ooo," said Kiyoshi. "You've come a long way."

Hyuuga had followed them up to the attic, watching closely as Kiyoshi slowly navigated the ladder and now he sighed and said, "Well, you're stuck here. Don't get into trouble, don't involve us in trouble, and in general do not cause trouble, or we will _end you slowly_. We'll see about reserving your slot, but you really do have to come up with the money."

Kagami had been staring at the earthbender, and now he cleared his throat. "Are you Kiyoshi, as in Kiyoshi Teppei, Iron Heart, one of the best earthbenders in the world?" said Kagami. "I thought you lived in Ba Sing Se."

Kiyoshi blinked at him exactly once, and then said, "But I don't. I live here in Republic City."

'That's- clear," said Kagami. "That's very clear."

Kiyoshi grinned at him. "Of course it is!" he said. "You're a firebender, but you don't live in the Fire Nation!"

Hyuuga smacked Kiyoshi on the back of the head. "That's enough out of you," he said. "What's with this volunteering me for training? We don't have time to babysit rookies who might not even make a team."

"Hey," said Kise, pausing on his way out of the window.

"Welcome to Republic City," said Kiyoshi, smiling as his head vanished down the stairwell.

.0.

Kise fell out of the air almost at their feet, dodging as he came the flying bison still locking horns in the air.

"You're still not allowed to have one," he said to Kuroko. "Kagamichi is mean." A calf floated over to him, attracted by the bright yellow of the robe draped over Kise's shoulder. It headbutted Kise, who ran his hand over it's soft head before blowing it back to the herd.

Kuroko sighed, but passed Kise a pack. They filed onto the ferry and divided their gazes between the golden glow of the Arena and the heaving shadows of Air Temple Island, the lights sharp and bright in the temple.

Kise looked back at the island. There was an edge of abstraction to his gaze. Other airbenders floated at the heads of their beasts and soothed them, bedding them down for the night. Third Caravan should have been well on their way to the Fire Nation by now, or docked at the Western Air Temple. What business had been so urgent that Takeuchi had been called straight to the Council meeting and not let out even by dinner time? Kise knew from experience that the United Republic Council didn't like to do all-nighters. And he hadn't known that the Aida family was branching out into the pro-bending business. Useful stuff. He'd have to remember to mention it to Representative Kagetora.

Aomine shrugged out his shoulders and sighed. Satsuki was probably already planning on decorating the attic. She liked pretty things. They didn't have much space, but that was all right because they didn't have many things. Aomine looked at the splash of the waves on the ferry, then out over the water. He eyed the docks- ships came and went from there didn't they? He could find work there, easy. It was always easy for a waterbender to find work anywhere there was water. Waterbender like him, even easier. He should look up that guy, too, that Mako.

Kuroko looked up at the oval of white moon-face, shining down from the sky. It was fatter now than it had been since they set out, and the stars, to his eye, were different. The moon was turning her face to Republic City.

.0.

After pooling their money, they discovered that they did in fact have enough for the pot, but only if they no longer had to worry about things such as food, lodging or essentials. The Avatar was of no help at all when it came to these things. Like any airbender, he was typically unconcerned about such things. Food was food. They could in fact have gotten fed every day at Air Temple Island, but this was not a state of affairs that was likely to last them any length of time at all. Kagami and Aomine ate like starving moose-lions, and even if Kuroko and Kise looked like they ate like birds, they still...consumed matter.

So they went hunting for work. Kagami almost immediately picked up some shifts at the power station, generating electricity with lightning bending. He could pick up a shift here and there, and Republic City always needed more power. Kuroko had spoken to Hyuuga, and through him contacted the Arena's announcer, and through him, managed to get a job working at Republic City Times, one of the smaller newspapers, doing something he refused to elaborate on. Though it was likely to be steady money, it wasn't ready money. They needed the cash on hand.

The Avatar's business was... being the Avatar. The United Republic City council was in session, and Kise disappeared into it, reappearing at the end of everyday slightly less perfect than the day before, and ready for practice. He did, however, manage to scourge favours to make the attic more comfortable, getting them furniture and cast-offs. Momoi quite quickly found a night waitressing job, and made predictably plentiful tips. Living day-to-day wasn't going to be comfortable, but they were going to make it in time to qualify for this year's tournaments. Kagami didn't want to admit it, but if he was going to do this thing- and Aomine certainly meant to do it- they really were probably going to be better at it than anyone. Kagami had his pride, after all. As long as they won, everything would be alright. Somehow.

They had practice.

.0.

"This is fucking ridiculous," said Kagami, after Riko squirted him with the hose for the fifth time.

"What part of 'one-second burst' do you not understand?" she said. "Honestly, if you guys are going to be this bad, you should just save your money and drop out."

Kise made sheep's eyes at her. "Thank you so much for taking the time to coach us," he said. "We really appreciate your help."

"I'm not coaching you," she said. Nigou wriggled and panted on her feet. "I needed a break from work down the hall and I came to point and laugh. Honestly, you guys are probably good benders-" her eyes flicked up their bodies, and she mentally corrected herself; _great_ benders. Kise was the _Avatar_, and Kagami and Aomine- she'd never seen a waterbender like Aomine, ever. Something about Kagami's bending pricked her in her brain, though the thought always faded before Riko could catch it. "-but you are going to be absolute shit at pro-bending. It's a _sport_, you know. There are rules and points and everything." She dropped the hose on the floor. "That's the difference between _pro-bending_," she said. "And _fighting_."

Kiyoshi sent another couple of discs into the net. Kise mirrored him exactly, _pop-pop_. He had the timing of it now, he thought. Kiyoshi was patiently going over the basics, and Kise was enjoying this kind of earthbending, less mountains, more missiles. He didn't like the uniforms, though. Kise preferred being free and mobile. The practice uniforms had so much padding that it was hard to move as much as he might like to. Kagamichi and Aominechi were adjusting better. What they were having problems with was-

"NO ICE," roared Hyuuga at Aomine. "NO STEAM, NO FOG, NO BLASTS, NO ICE. WHAT PART OF THIS IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND?"

-everything else.

"I have to take this?" said Aomine, grimly pulling water from his ears.

"You take it now or you take it in the ring," said Kuroko severely. He had obtained a copy of the rulebook, and as an extra precaution to keep from losing all their money, was following all three of them around reading the rules to them over and over again. Whenever Kuroko had to go to work, Momoi did it instead. Hyuuga had ended up coming to shout at them more often than not, and it was badly needed. Aomine hadn't known pro-bending would need so many _rules_. "Do you know that you can lose a match based entirely on fouls? Do you know how many fouls you've committed?"

"Too many," said Riko. "You're nice boys. Really you are. But I don't see how you're going to do this."

Kagami spat blood. That last medicine ball to the head- spirits, this woman was merciless. Unless that had been Kuroko. It was two in the morning. Or maybe three. Kagami was no longer quite certain of the concept of time. "We are going to do this," he said, a little unsteadily. Ten thousand yuan down the hole. "We are."

"Right," said Aomine, grimly.

"That's the spirit, Aominechi," said Kise. Kiyoshi bent another couple of discs at him, and Kise backflipped, pushing himself back up with a blast of air.

"NO AIRBENDING DURING A MATCH," yelled Hyuuga. Refereeing these idiots was going to be a nightmare.

.0.

Aomine asked for Mako while wandering around Dragonflats and got weird looks- expected- and pretty good directions, which was less so. 'That weird-looking building with the really ugly thugs out front', however, was pretty unmistakable. They were pretty much really ugly thugs.

They pulled a gush of water out from the handy barrel they had standing by, and then aimed it at him in deadly shards. Aomine... _countered_. His hands took control of the ice before it reached his face, and the bits melted and flowed around his hands in one long torrent, slamming them into the wall. People on the streets muttered and cleared away, but no one screamed. Instead, they moved quickly and quietly. They did not expect the police to care much about this place and what went on here.

In retrospect, when everyone was shouting at him later, this should have been Aomine's first clue.

When he tried the door and found that it was locked, his patience gave way and he just blasted open the door.

The door had not in fact been locked, but it had been fastened. Aomine had to give the guys outside their props; they stood up and rushed wildly for his back. He seized by the back of their clothes and cracked their heads together. Aomine walked into the gym, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. It was full of waterbenders, rough-looking men sparring or drilling next to barrels of water. Aomine could see that these were, at least, a cut above the street benders, the sorry lot that Aomine had found lining up for work by the docks. He chucked the small fry away from him.

"Heard I could find someone named Mako here?" Aomine called.

The waterbender standing by the barrels watching the rest of them go at it looked up. "I'm Mako," he said. "Who are you?" No one else so much as looked up, even as the guys Aomine had thrown against the wall made bubbling noises. Disciplined. Aomine appreciated that.

Aomine shrugged. "Got told I could come here for benders actually worth their weight. Koala-sloth's water dude." He slanted a look across the gym. "Gotta say, thought he was wasting my time."

Mako cast an amused look at the unlucky bouncers. "There's a reason they were out there instead of in here. You want to train here?"

"Apparently there's no fucking other place," said Aomine.

"That's true," said Mako placidly. "We do turn out some of the best waterbenders in the city."

Aomine snorted. "I don't give a shit," he said. "All I want to know is, any of you capable of giving me any kind of fight?" He thought for a moment. "Also if there's any work going for a waterbender in this town."

Mako studied Aomine for another long moment. Aomine let him. He'd come into another man's gym and beat up his bully boys, after all.

Finally, Mako nodded. "What's your name?" he said.

"Aomine Daiki."

"Well, Aomine Daiki," said Mako. "I'm Hanamiya Makoto. These fuckers behind me are the Red Monsoons."

**END OF BOOK ONE.**


	10. Side Story: Momoi and Aomine as kids

"Quit it!" screeched Satsuki.

"I'm not doing nothing," said Daiki, and slipped another water whip in through the spaces of her hair, sniggering as she yelped. Stupid Satsuki. Why'd she have to go and start training to be a Kiyoshi Warrior, anyway? It wasn't as though she could bend, or anything. _He_ could. He was better than anyone. He'd take care of them. She didn't need to go off all day and train with girls, who shooed him away but he didn't care because he didn't want to learn their stupid fighting style anyway.

"Quit it," said Satsuki, and pointed her spoon at him. "Or- or-"

Daiki knew what she would do. She'd leave him, just like being passed from house to house in the village, until they'd declared themselves their own family and just got fed by everyone as a whole. It wasn't her they didn't want, but Daiki, Daiki who started fights and destroyed boats and had just washed up on the shore one day.

Satsuki had said she wouldn't leave him, that she'd never leave him. Why did she need to be a warrior, when there was him around? Stupid Satsuki. "Or what?" he said.

Momoi came in with the spoon high and fast, and threw it. Daiki smacked it out of the air with a tongue of water taken from her cup, and then her other hand flashed out and hit that arm three, ten times, and the water collapsed right when Daiki would have brought it back to teach her a sharp lesson.

"Wha-" he said, but his other arm was moving, instinctual, automatic. Daiki was impossible for the water bending masters to ever teach; he was better than them all combined and did practically nothing they recognized as proper bending. Satsuki ducked in and hit him all along the exposed side of his body, wrist elbow underarm bicep chest waist hip, and Daiki collapsed on a leg suddenly gone numb.

She climbed onto his head and sat on it. "There," she said. "Now say you're sorry."

"No," snarled Daiki, outraged, and tried to kick with his one good leg; Satsuki grabbed it on the swing and folded it with all her strength. Daiki howled.

"Say it!" she said.

"No," he said.

Satsuki picked up the spoon and held it threateningly. "Say it or I'll feed you all the stewed seaweed _right now_."

"No!" cried Daiki, and then snorted, he wasn't crying, he wasn't. But he couldn't bend, could feel the water just a few feet away but was unable to move it.

"You're the one being a jerk," said Satsuki, but she got off him anyway and pressed at his bony arms until they began to tingle and the clenching of his fist once again rattled all the waters of the bay.

At the end of it, Satsuki's small strong hands warm on his limbs, Daiki felt better, and ate up all his stewed seaweed. "You should be more afraid of me," he told her, and wasn't sure exactly why he said it, except that if she hadn't stopped his second strike, or the kick, where he'd felt ready to drain the very air they breathed- he didn't know. Sometimes the adults were afraid.

"Don't be stupid," said Satsuki, and made him ice up their milk so they could lick it off the spoon together.


	11. Side Story: Kise and Kasamatsu

The new arrivals spilled off their Air Bison in a flood of unfamiliar accents and official-sounding talk, groaning as they stretched out their legs and settled in their beasts. Already the monks and acolytes were moving forward to direct and corral them, and as Kasamatsu sidled through the giant courtyard off from running errands, organized chaos was taking place everywhere.

Some of them wouldn't stay, Kasamatsu knew, swept off instead to one of the other Air Temples, or just here on a visit. He wondered if one of them was the Avatar, who was supposed to arrive any day now: many Air Benders were coming in to see that paragon. One of them caught Kasamatsu's eye, standing off by himself. He was clearly younger than all the rest by a good deal, too young to be caught in the administrative shuffle from temple to temple, young enough to have been set aside as unimportant until the important stuff got sorted out. His head was shaved bald like the very youngest and oldest acolytes, and his yellow eyes took in Air Temple Island curiously. The kid had his glider tucked under his arm, and as Kasamatsu approached him he was leaning into the air that swept the Republic City Air Temple; the gusts from the wind whipping around the towers to pool in the main courtyard, the ice-cold salty ocean air, the billows of smoke and stench which were the legacy of Republic City's factories. It always took the sensitive ones like that at first, the city. He was maybe eleven, maybe twelve, Kasamatsu's own age. He would have been tall for twelve, but the face which turned and smiled at his approach was round-cheeked and innocent, and Kasamatsu rapidly revised his age estimate down a year.

"Hi," he said, and introduced himself. "You staying?"

"I don't know yet," said the newcomer, responding to Kasamatsu's friendly tone and somewhat masterly manner like a flower blooming in the dawn. "I'm Kise. I just came from the Northern Air Temple." His gaze darted around the courtyard. "Elder Takeuchi brought me here."

Kasamatsu nodded. No wonder the kid looked so lost. Takeuchi was in charge of half the Island and was involved heavily in preparations for the arrival of the new Avatar. He wouldn't have much time to do the introductions for a kid newly arrived from what Kasamatsu, city-bred, couldn't help thinking of as the sticks. "You need to be somewhere?" said Kasamatsu, making a rapid command decision.

Kise shrugged casually, but looked crestfallen as Kasamatsu turned away. Everyone was busy, and no one had time for him.

Kasamatsu looked over his shoulder at Kise. "Come on," he said.

Kise brightened and followed, beginning to talk his head off.

"It's not as cold here," he said, trying to explain away his formal-looking robes, long-sleeved and heavy. "The Northern Air Temple is much colder."

"Oh, we're cold enough at night," said Kasamatsu. "But it's summer now, and between being out on the water and the haze from the city, we're pretty lucky, though.

"It's so different from home," said Kise, looking at the seething metropolis of Republic City, watching smoke trail into the air.

"What's it like?" said Kasamatsu, and let Kise talk about his home as they passed into the living quarters for the young boys.

Kasamatsu found Moriyama there, and Kobori frowning intensely over some history homework. Kise was greeted warmly, though not without Moriyama looking him over narrowly first to ascertain he was not female.

"New kid?" said Kobori, nodding to Kise.

"Yeah," said Kasamatsu. "Taking him out for a sweep, you guys want in?"

They both agreed, leaping up to grab their gliders and gleefully abandoning their school-work. It would just be a short run, Kasamatsu thought. Just around the city and back, away from the hustle, it didn't have to take long at all.

"Window?" said Moriyama, a gleam in his eye.

Kasamatsu looked out their dorm window, which overlooked a sheer drop down the side of the island's cliffs, and looked at Kise.

Kise grinned, and said, "Sure."

"I'll go after you," said Kasamatsu. He didn't think Kise would stick the takeoff, but he also didn't want to have to explain to the elders how he'd let a kid hurt himself by throwing himself out a window.

Kobori and Moriyama jumped, followed by Kise, and Kasamatsu's heart stopped in his chest for one long moment as Kise plummeted down, down, down, and it was only at the very last second before the waves reached up and took him that he snapped the glider's wings open and soared, rising to float above the temple with the rest of them in perfect formation.

Kasamatsu waited for Kise to get close enough, then kicked him hard in the shins, catching himself back up with a causal flip; Kasamatsu's supreme confidence was in the sky.

"Ow!" said Kise.

"Showoff," said Kasamatsu, accurately.

"He beat your record, though," said Moriyama, laughing, and they all caught the updraft and went higher and higher, until the noise of Air Temple Island was a distant memory, and Republic City lay before them in a dark sprawling moving mass, like an elephant-termite mound cut open, cars in the streets and streets cutting everywhere, the lights beginning to go on as evening fell.

"Welcome to Republic City," said Kasamatsu, and showed Kise the best spot to do tricks over the factories with their gusts of hot air, pointed out the park and the markets- "Best fire flakes in the city, we'll go sometime,"- and they all flew until the bells rang out for dinner, and they had to go back, racing each other through the clouds.

When they touched down in front of the dormitories to stash their gliders and splash their faces before going in, though, they got a nasty shock: Takeuchi was standing there with his arms crossed, quite clearly waiting for them.

"Er," said Kasamatsu.

"Yukio, Yoshitaka, Koji. You're late," said Takeuchi, perfectly patient. "I see you had a nice flight."

They shuffled their feet. Kasamatsu suddenly recalled he'd been supposed to help the monks settle in the new arrivals, not take off with one new arrival and spend the whole evening goofing off flying, and Kobori and Moriyama went white with the thought of their missed practice. They were dirty with soot, too, and soaked with sweat and water vapour both. Kise tried to tuck himself behind Kasamatsu.

"You do know that tonight is a special occasion, " said Takeuchi. "The Avatar is to receive his mastery tattoos tomorrow, a great many diplomats and important personages will be present on the Island tonight. It is a very important ceremony for all air benders, to welcome another master into our ranks, and to confirm that the Avatar is ready to begin his training in the next element. Air Temple Island is under the scrutiny of the world." They squirmed.

Kasamatsu was surprised, he hadn't seen any other Air Bison arriving today, and no one had said-

"Avatar Kise, do not let me detain you," said Takeuchi, remorseless. "I'm sure the boys will show you where to clean up."

Kasamatsu opened his mouth, and then closed it.

Takeuchi paused. "Now," he said. They ran for it.

They raced to the washing area- Kasamatsu grabbing Kise by the shirt and outright dragging him- splashed their faces in the stone basins and raced back to the main hall, pausing only for Kasamatsu to turn his head and glare at Kise while they waited under the eyes of the nuns to pass muster for entry into a room full of important people.

Kise smiled, with a faint trace of anxiety around his eyes. "I thought you knew," he said, apologetically. "Usually everyone knows."

That was the annoying part, knew Kasamatsu. He should have known. But he hadn't thought to connect Kise, sparkling and sweet and a complete showoff, with the line of silent statues in the sanctuary, with the news that the Avatar had completed his Air Bending training and was coming to Republic City. He hadn't even counted back from the last Avatar's death and realised that the new one had to be younger than him.

"You have your mastery?" he said instead, letting the air whip off his irritation as well as dry his skin.

"A month ago," said Kise.

Kasamatsu rolled his eyes so hard he felt they might permanently roll back into their sockets and fall into the gaping hole that was his brain. Kise was ten. No wonder he'd been showing off, watching them fly, no wonder he'd showed them all up so easily. Kise's head was shaven in preparation for his mastery tattoos, the youngest to wear them since Aang himself, almost three hundred years ago.

Kise had neither the air of ethereal awareness nor the grave impression of secret wisdom Kasamatsu had come to expect from pictures of the Avatar. He did, however, exude an air of self-possessed certainty which Kasamatsu only found annoying: Kise seemed to stand a bit taller now that they knew he was the Avatar, a little more stiffly. He thumped Kise in the shoulder. "You have your mastery but you can't do a triple backwards barrel roll?" he said. "What did you even do for your test?"

Kise pouted and launched into a highly coloured description of his original move, waving his hands around trying to get them to picture it, and Moriyama and Kobori slowly unstuck and started responding to him again, while they waited for the important people- the non-air benders of Republic City, invited to attend this momentous occasion- to actually come in and sit down so they all could eat.

There was an empty place at the high table no doubt meant for the Avatar, but Kise eyed it and refused to go.

"I want to sit with you," said Kise, trying to stare wide-eyed into Kasamatsu's face.

"Tough," responded Kasamatsu, standing up, and having all eyes fasten on him. He'd have to bring Kise there, with the death grip the brat had on his sleeve. He swallowed. "You're the Avatar. Man up."


	12. Book 2: Chapter 1

Book Two: Break

Republic City whirred to life a few hours before the sun rose, the low hum of the street lights dimming for the collective roar of engines, the people beginning to file ant-like out of their houses. Kagami and Kise and Aomine had only dropped off to sleep three hours ago, but Aomine was woken when Kagami woke when Kuroko woke when Momoi woke, at the _ding_ of the glorified egg timer that had served Kagami as his alarm clock since he'd picked it up from an air nomad peddler for a song. Kise had grown up in the dormitories of the Air Temples, though, and could sleep through everything but the morning bells to mediation, which woke him a bare ten minutes later instead, tolling over the water from Air Temple island, reaching through the windows to call Kise home. He rolled off the platform where he slept with Kuroko and Momoi, grabbed his glider and leapt out the window without opening his eyes, stepping on anyone or even checking his hair. Aomine stayed on his platform on the other side of the attic a little while longer, pretending he could still sleep. Momoi went to their tiny curtained-off washing area first, and the splashing of the water on her body kept Aomine from actually sleeping. Kuroko corralled Nigou before he could upset Kagami unearthing from the icebox half a basket of eggs to crack into the rice boiling on the other side of the tiny gas-powered stove. They had it with soy sauce. This was an improvement from last week, when they'd had porridge with soy sauce, end of.

Aomine was tired. Last night- no, this morning, they'd dragged themselves up after training with Nigou slipping out of Aomine's arms like a sack of potatoes to find Kuroko and Momoi already sleeping the sleep of the deeply exhausted, and this had been after a full day of work. They had their match tomorrow, though. They had to be prepared.

Kagami was the first one to leave, racing to the morning shift at the power plant. Union rules stated that lightning-benders needed to take at least three-hour breaks between six-hour shifts, which left Kagami struggling to fit in two shifts a day _and_ pro-bending practice, running him the most ragged out of any of them except maybe Momoi. Kuroko slurped up his bowl and left too, taking Nigou with him. Momoi took a little longer, spreading her wet hair out over her shoulders, poking Dai-chan with the end of a stool to clean up the water and refreeze the icebox, closing the window after Ki-chan.

Aomine dragged himself out of his sheets and ate his breakfast, wishing he'd made enough yesterday for meat for them to actually eat, instead of the bones from last night's meal making up the broth for today's. Satsuki sat on the tattered, ancient sofa that had come with the attic and ate, and Aomine looked at the deep dark shadows forming under her eyes. He hadn't seen those since before Tetsu had come, when he'd first started going out with the boats for the catch. But Republic City was boiling over with benders who wanted those jobs and the fishermen here weren't likely to be as sympathetic to two orphans struggling to live on handouts as the villagers back home had been. The Kiyoshi Islanders hadn't stinted on what they had to give, but all the same their charity had left them clothed in castoffs and eating the same thing a week in a row. Aomine had thought they were past those times.

He sat next to her with the whole rest of the pot and said, "We'll win, tomorrow."

Satsuki ate neatly and quickly and said, "Of course you will." Then she added, "If you don't forget the rules or the zones and you don't get knocked out early by someone who knows what they're doing better than you do." She ruminated for a bit. "Or if Kichan doesn't accidentally airbend and get you all thrown out."

Aomine snorted and said, "We'll kill him if he does," which wasn't _can we really keep this up_. Aida had been clear and upfront about it, and Aomine had gotten the skinny from the other pro-benders who turned up to Hanamiya's gym. The winnings didn't start until they actually were competing in the tournament, and they had at least another two weeks until then, another fortnight of living hand-to-mouth and running themselves ragged trying to make something of themselves in this merciless city. Aomine didn't doubt they could win. But winning might not change anything for them.

Kise had not needed to be clear. If being the Avatar called him away, he would go. That wasn't even a question. They couldn't afford to think like that, though.

"Dai-chan?" said Satsuki, reaching to take the empty pot from him. "I'll wash it before I leave, come on. You need to go to the docks, right?"

"Nah," said Aomine, getting up and grabbing her bowl from her, already bubbling the soapy water over the bowls left in one of the buckets. "I've got this." He _did_.

.0.

Aomine hit the Red Monsoons again once it became clear he wasn't going to make any more than a fistful of yuans hanging out at the docks past the dawn rush. Mako had a few jobs he kept for guys he liked, his inner circle, the ones who were just as hard-eyed as he was. Aomine knew he was as a good a bender as any of them, better, but he didn't see any point in toadying up to Mako for scraps, which didn't work for most of them anyway. He wanted something that would make him some real money. He was sick of the thin sleeping pads they had in the attic. He wanted them to have fucking cutlery that matched and wasn't broken, was that too much to ask? Kagami was a _prince_. He could have walked away from their life any time he chose, but he wasn't doing it. He wasn't walking away from _them_.

Aomine fought, savagely. Not anywhere near cutting loose, but they were less strict at this place than that ref Hyuuga was, and the benders here took their hits without whining, coming right back up at him with sharp and vicious tricks, close enough to kill, but not nearly good enough to kill _him_. He wouldn't make these mistakes at the matches.

Looking over the railing that lined the second floor and onto the sparring areas, Hanamiya watched Kazuya fly through the air, trailing blood that frosted into interesting patterns in the air as he went. His eyes noted the slight hollowing of Aomine's cheeks, the drawn-out stretched look he was getting, the way he moved around the water like no one Hanamiya had ever seen. Hanamiya kicked Kentaro, who snorted awake and almost fell out of his chair.

Hanamiya nodded to the floor. "You're hitting Narook's later?" he said.

"It's that time of the week," Kentaro said, rubbing his elbow. "Boss," he added.

"See if the new guy is interested," said Hanamiya. "Take Sakurai, too. It's about time he took a good look at how we operate."

Kentaro rolled his eyes down to Aomine demolishing someone else altogether; his breath beginning to frost in the air. "How the hell's he doing this from down there," said Kentaro, cross-eyed. Hanamiya flexed his hands on the rail and water began to flow down all the walls back to the buckets. Aomine looked up, startled. Most of the chumps working in this place barely noticed. Ha. Hanamiya had known he was onto something. Of all the gyms in Republic City for this guy to walk into.

"Because he's working hard with the power of wonderful belief and spirit," said Hanamiya, locking eyes with Aomine Daiki. "Why do you fucking think? Because he's good. Take him with you, wave a bit of change in his face." And then they'd see if fucking Imayoshi wanted to talk like he had this city in the palm of his hand. Then they'd see if he really could.

.0.

Kuroko had extremely nice seniors in the newspaper office. Izuki had taken Hyuuga's gruff, "Look after him" to heart. Nigou had been whole-heartedly adopted by the staff, and he at least ate well on their tidbits. Aida-san also took charge of him during the hours when Kuroko and Momoi went to their night jobs and the other three practiced, and if he came back with his belly rounded out with food and with his fur soft and clean, they could only be grateful that Aida Riko was a softer touch than she looked. Kuroko had been given a thankless proofreading job, but the money was reasonable, he had his own desk, and there was always tea and biscuits. Kiyoshi also cleaned here, or at least came in sometime around lunch and then spent the evening hanging around looking wise as he bothered the rest of them at their work.

Kuroko learned a lot about Republic City from reading the things that passed his desk. A fluff piece about the completion of the Avatar's training told him that Kise's time had been well-spent since they had met him. The sheaf of articles on crime in Republic City gave him pause. Fleet movement reports told him that soldiers and sailors would shortly be returning to Republic City, just in time to fill the city to overflowing and in time for the conference being called in Republic City for the benefit of the young Avatar. The Fleet Commander was highly anticipated to be in attendance.

Mitobe interrupted Kuroko's work with a quiet cup of tea placed near his hand, and Kuroko murmured his thanks. Kise-kun's firebending master was coming to Republic City. Kise had alternated between terror and adoration in all his stories about Commander Akashi, who commanded the second fleet.

Koganei had followed Mitobe over with a new tin of biscuits, and he munched companionably over Kuroko while he and Mitobe chose their biscuits with solemn gravity.

"Your team is playing tomorrow, right?" said Koganei. "What's their name? I'm a Panda-Bear fan myself, but they already qualified, so I can root for your team tomorrow no problem."

"They're the Lion-Dogs," said Kuroko. "You follow the matches?"

Mitobe nodded.

"We usually do," said Koganei. "Even if we can't get tickets, you know? Izuki's broadcasting now, and his numbers are really going up. Last year they'd only just started with a radio slot, but now that a few more big teams are into it, the championships have been getting bigger and bigger. Hyuuga and Riko really put their backs into it."

Mitobe frowned.

"The gangs used to run the pro-bending in Republic City," translated Koganei. "Riko's being straight with everyone and running it like a business, but she wouldn't be able to do it without some serious money behind her. The triads don't like it when someone muscles it on their territory. They watch her closely so they can strike if she slips up."

"Is it very serious?" said Kuroko.

"If there was any wrongdoing, we would find and expose it!" said Koganei, thumping his chest with his empty mug. "And Riko's tough. She gets things done, even when she doesn't like how she has to do it."

Nigou chose this moment to brush past a napping Kiyoshi's legs, and he let out a yell as he was startled awake, which naturally roused the rest of the office because Kiyoshi rattled the earth in his surprise, upsetting anyone and anything that could have been upset. In the chaos of trying to locate Nigou through his barks in a sea of newsprint and paper, Kuroko forgot to ask Koganei what exactly it was that Aida Riko did not like to do.

.0.

Heads turned as the nice young man in the United Fleet's smart uniform laboured at the bicycle attached to a wagon. His passenger was another young man who could have been mistaken for the more eccentric class of tourist, the ones who found the noise of motorcars inauthentic or annoying and preferred to see the city by rickshaw. He was dressed in the manner of a wealthy Water Tribesman even in the heat of Republic City. In the wagon with him was a statue of Avatar Kiyoshi.

Takao raised his head and said, "What do you mean, you want to go to Narook's? That's on the other side of the city. If you want to go there then _you_ take a crack at moving yourself around, how about that?"

"We could go to Kuang's," said Midorima, sighing in the manner of one making a huge sacrifice.

"Are you joking?' said Takao. "I couldn't afford a place like that, Shin-chan." He mulled it over. "Unless you're paying, obviously."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Midorima. "Then we'll just go to Narook's."

Takao slumped on his bike. By now he wasn't sure why he bothered to turn up to the embassy in full uniform, except that he still had his rank and no one could take _that_ away from him, damn it. "I should never have introduced you to that place," he said.

"If you don't hurry," said Midorima. "Then obviously we won't get there in time for lunch." He settled down and adjusted the statue of Avatar Kiyoshi the length of his forearm sitting in the corner of the wagon. Auntie Wu had predicted some bad luck today for him, but that had been the largest lucky item Midorima had been able to find on short notice. In the whole city.

It would just have to do.


	13. Book 2: Chapter 2

"Hey, Kiyoshi Island!" someone called. Aomine raised his head from punching ice, and turned.

Aomine knew Mako's right-hand man by sight, though he didn't really want to. Seto used too much hair gel and had shifty eyes. He didn't know the name of the boy shivering next to Seto, but Aomine knew his lightning-quick water whip, sharp enough to have left a scar in the wall of solid brick.

"Aomine, right?" said Seto. "Here's Ryou, say hi, Ryou."

"H-h-he-hello!" stammered Ryou.

Aomine jerked his head at them.

"We're going out on a job," said Seto. "Need someone who looks like he'll bite someone's head off for looking at him, and we think you fit the bill. Interested?"

"Rough work?" said Aomine.

"Nah, picking up the weekly loan payment from an establishment of note," said Seto. "Mako- yeah, you know Mako, runs this place- they owe Mako money and they're on a payment plan. We get to be the ones picking up the interest every week, and we do their takeout on the way." He paused.

Aomine shrugged his shoulders. "What's the take?"

"Fifty yuan," said Kentaro. "Fifty, for twenty minutes' work. We'll do a slow walk there and back, miss the crush. We'll even spot you lunch on the way. Whaddaya say, Aomine?"

Aomine's stomach thankfully did not choose this minute to gurgle. He felt the pull of it, though, the lure of not spending half his day's pull on the cheapest lunch he could weedle, and of fifty yuan to bring back. That could go into their pool, and Satsuki or Tetsu would find a use for it.

"Why me?" he said. "If it's such a good offer and I'm the new guy?"

Seto sighed. "Do you hate money," he said. "Look, we're all waterbenders here. And this is Republic City. We gotta look out for each other. Like Mako, there- you think Mako's rich? You think Mako's got a lot of money to throw around? Look at this place. It's a dump. But he spotted Narook's a loan when they needed some in a tight place and all he asks is a weekly payment so he himself doesn't starve to death."

"Fuck you too Kentaro," Mako called down from his seat up on the second floor, pleasantly.

"See?" said Seto. "He's so weak he can't even come down and kick my ass for talking smack about him." He turned back to Aomine. "This is Red Monsoon ground," he said. "We stick up for each other around here. You're new, you don't have steady work, you could use some jobs just until you find your feet. Honest work, honest pay."

"So I'm enough of a sad case you're taking me?" said Aomine.

"I'm also taking Ryou," said Seto, absolutely straight-faced. "All the hard cases. You in, or what?"

Aomine looked at Ryou's huge round eyes and shrugged. Fifty yuan and lunch. He wasn't getting a better deal today.

.0.

Kasamatsu paused and said, "Pro-bending?"

"Yes," said Kise, booming his voice so he could be heard. At their table alone, over a dozen people chattered over their food. The windows of the dining room had been opened to relieve the crush of people and through them the air bison calves and yearlings repeatedly and hopefully stuck their heads in attracted by the smell of food, then had to be blown back by whoever was unlucky enough to be sitting near the window. The process would be repeated all over again when the calf caught itself from tumbling head-over-heels though the air, and came whooshing back delighted with this new game. "Our team is called the Lion-dogs, and we're playing tomorrow night to get into the tournament. I'm earthbending. Ah, but you don't need to come. I know it's busy around here right now. We can save that for the championships."

"You," said Kasamatsu, not bothering to stop eating, "are an idiot."

Kise looked injured, which he was good at. "Why?" he said.

"The conference is coming up," said Kasamatsu. "You're supposed to be in attendance. You can't be in attendance if you're fighting half the night."

Kise shook his head. "These things always clear out for the night so that socialising and other such activities can happen," he said. "I wriggled out of the last one-"

"And then they came crying to me-" growled Kasamatsu.

"- so I know there's not going to be much happening," said Kise. "I can do it. There's no question. There's- sempai, how do you know when the tournament runs from?"

Kasamatsu coloured right up to his ears. "Everyone knows," he said.

"This is only the third year it's being run by Aida-san," said Kise. "It was different before. She told me so."

"I said everyone knows," said Kasamatsu.

"Sempai, are you a _fa_-" Kasamatsu made a short sharp jerk of his hand, and blew Kise's bowl into his face.

"I'm not," said Kasamatsu. "I just sometimes- the radio is on and I listen to it, that's all. Don't overthink it."

Kise brushed rice off his face and ate it. "We're going to keep it quiet that I'm the Avatar," he said.

Kasamatsu stared at him. Then he picked up Kise's free hand, turned it around, and smacked Kise in his arrow with his arrow. Kise yelped, rubbing his forehead. On Kasamatsu, as well on Kise, the arrow tattoos signifying mastery of the art glowed a bright blue on the backs of both his hands and on his forehead. They ran the length of his back and arms and they rendered an airbender instantly recognisable. A number of Air Nomads, non-benders by birth, would never wear the mastery tattoos but lived and died in the air on the Air Bison who wore the same arrows in their fur. Kasamatsu had gotten his at sixteen, and had been considered a prodigy.

Kise had gotten his at ten.

"The uniforms cover the hands and head," said Kise, in answer to this. "This is Republic City. I can pass for earthbender here, sempai." If they hid his tattoos, he meant. Airbenders no longer shaved their heads completely, not even the guys, and under Kise's fringe and a pro-bending safety helmet, the arrow would be much less noticeable.

"People aren't _stupid_," said Kasamatsu. "Your face is on the half the noodle packets in this city. You aren't going to keep it a secret."

"It'll be troublesome if a lot of people knew," said Kise.

"Your friends from that time know about this?" said Kasamatsu. "Aren't you staying with them?"

"They're in the team with me," said Kise. "We've been training at night."

Kasamatsu rolled his eyes. "Of course they are," he said. "Are you guys actually any good?"

"Probably," said Kise, and smiled. "I'm a good bender, sempai, you know that. And they're good, too. Avatar Korra did it, it worked out for her."

Kasamatsu said, "Winning isn't just about bending. And your past lives don't have relevance to your own choi-"

Kise sighed and looked out the window, to where Hayakawa was awkwardly bouncing a calf up and down, trying to help her get over her fear of flying more than a foot off the ground. His hair fell over his eyes and gleamed in the noonday sun. "But what is?" he said, ignoring that last part.

This time, Kasamatsu hit him with the table.

.0.

Narook's Noodles wasn't the seedy little dive Aomine had been expecting from the Red Monsoon's dilapidated gym, but a busy, chattering restaurant running over with customers. Apparently there was no longer an actual Narook, but the tourists liked the name and the history. Tetsu liked Water Tribe food and occasionally made a go of cooking it, which involved way too much seaweed and blubber for Aomine to stand it more than once a month, but Aomine slurped up two bowls without pausing when Seto got them led to a table in the middle of lunch rush and told the waitress to get them whatever they wanted. From where they were sitting, they could see the long open kitchen through the window, and the smell tugged at Aomine's stomach. Brine-broth and seawood noodles; it smelled a little like home.

Aomine paused in the middle of his third bowl to survey the restaurant. It was a mixed bag of people. Clerks from the offices one street over ate like they only had five minutes to do it in. Aomine and Ryou didn't look out of place in their rough clothes in a crowd of workers. There was even a Fleet soldier in the brilliant red jacket and impractical white pants. Aomine had seen the huge gleaming battleships before, and Auntie Li's oldest had gone off to enlist when he turned eighteen, but Kiyoshi Island didn't see much of them otherwise. Ryou unfroze enough during the meal to offer some conversation; born and raised in Republic City- "Triple Threat territory," said Ryou, and when Aomine blinked at him added, "Up by Dragonflats," as though _that_ meant anything.

"Not in the Triple Threats, then?" said Seto, dumping another load of fire-spice on his leftover soup.

Ryou paled then, twitching visibly. "N-n-no," he said. "I mean- waterbenders have to stick together, right? Right?"

"So right," said Seto, then slurped it all up. "You boys sit here and look full. I'll talk to the owner and get us paid for today."

Aomine nudged Ryou once Seto was gone. "Triple Threats?" he said.

Ryou nodded. "They're all three," he said. "Except airbenders. Because airbenders are pacifists. I mean, they take all three benders. Not they _are_ all three benders. That would make them the Avatar. Not that the Avatar would- the Threats- they- um-"

Aomine took pity on him and changed the subject. "You do much work for Mako?" he said.

"Guard-work," said Ryou. Aomine stared. Ryou didn't look like he could scare off a cold. "But I'm- I'm trying- Seto-san took us- we're just-"

A bowl shattered on the floor. Customers looked up sharply. Seto backed out of the kitchen slowly, eyes fixed on the bubbling hot soup floating in front of him. "Look," he was saying, reasonably, "You want to renegotiate the terms of your contract, you just talk to Mako, right? Don't scald the messenger-"

Aomine moved. One sweep of his arm and he had the ribbon of soup under his control, flicking it back into the face of the cook- who cursed the Red Monsoons- and then out again well above all their heads without spilling a drop. Customers scattered. Since this was Republic City, some of them took their noodles with them as they went.

Seto must have been preparing his strike; he flung ice shards at the cook hard enough to pin him to the wall of the kitchen, freezing the cook to the sink while he was at it. He stalked back into the kitchen. Shouts began to echo out of the tiny cramped space as Ryou stood and peered into the kitchen.

Aomine was about to follow Seto in to find a place to dump the soup. No trouble, his ass. Ryou's shout was the only warning he had when a huge gush of water roared out of the kitchen, washing all of them away- Seto and Ryou into the street, and Aomine straight into the counter, missing every other customer and solidifying around his arms and legs.

Aomine looked up and into bespectacled green eyes, the waterbender- the _other_ waterbender- adjusting his specs as he straightened out of his stance. Aomine struggled against the ice bonds, but they were strong. Flawless, in fact. No one Aomine had met so far in Republic City froze ice like this, in memory of the floating mountains of the sea. This guy wasn't any ordinary bender.

"Going somewhere?" said the other boy, cooly.

Aomine flexed his hands just right and the ice collapsed. This guy hadn't frozen the water around his hands to immobilise his fingers. Aomine would make him regret that.

"Nah," said Aomine, and dragged all the water in the restaurant up with him as he stood, shifting it around him, around them, whirling it as the Fleet Soldier who'd been eating with that guy eeped and began to usher the few customers left out of the restaurant. "I think that's going to be you."

.0.

Takao evacuated the civilians- nice words for _getting the hell out of Shin-chan's way_- and looked around for the two Midorima had doused out of the restaurant before getting into it with the big one. Shin-chan would wrap him up in two seconds; Takao was more concerned for if there were any more gangsters around. The Red Monsoons liked to run in packs, and any group of waterbenders was a bad proposition. Waterbenders were co-operative by nature. Midorima was supposed to be good, but a few of them working in tandem could probably overwhelm him fighting by himself, and Takao had a sinking feeling about response time out by Narook's at lunch. The police weren't going to be here any time soon.

They were just sitting up, rubbing their heads, and gaping into the restaurant. Takao turned his head- Shin-chan, how was Shin-chan doing- and gaped.

Shin-chan and the third guy tore at each other. That was the only word Takao could think of to describe it, and he'd seen waterbenders go at it pretty hard before, one-on-one sparring in the fleet training grounds, nothing barred but death. The third guy continually sent out lashing whips to attack Shin-chan, and Shin-chan countered with shots of deadly force, hard enough that when the other fighter let one pass rather than absorbing or deflecting it, it punched a hole right through the entire length of the register counter- and the projectiles were liquid, not ice. If Midorima was unyielding and cautious in attack then his opponent was his opposite, bending everything at once, everywhere at once, sliding his entire offense to the side, turning it to defense in the next moment. Takao had never seen anyone _fight_ like that. And he had known that Midorima was supposed to be good in combat, but never seen anyone drive him to this furious focus. It was an ever-changing stalemate, and it seemed for long endless moments that the whole world stopped to stare.

Sirens broke the sound of rushing water. Midorima and the other guy jerked out of their stances and let their water drop at the impossibly loud noise, coming in fast. It shook the other Red Monsoon thugs out of their shock. They raced forward as the battlefield began to drain of water to grab their friend by the arms and shout at him to- Takao couldn't hear, he couldn't hear anything but that damn siren- and drag him off with them. Midorima tried to step forward to stop them, but their leader- the one who had gotten into it first with MIyaji-san- raised a quick sweeping wall of water, some kind of clever trick, and when Midorima had whipped clear of it they were gone, probably out through the kitchens.

Other people on the street were also trying to get clear, with no such luck. Metalbenders swung down from the newly arrived airship, and on the same cables followed the other officers, marked with the coloured sashes of their elements, or electric gloves fitted tight to their hands. Sighing, Takao put his hands on his head and sat down. This would probably take hours to sort out. See if he ever listened to Shin-chan again about where to go for lunch.

.0.

They went underground to escape the sirens, moving though what Seto called Red Monsoon Secret Tunnels that were really just sewers usually too flooded for people to move through, though Seto assured them people _did_ live down here, if they had nowhere else to go.

They would have to have nowhere else to go, thought Aomine. It was the fucking sewers. He had no idea where they were going, but Ryou at least seemed to have some idea.

Shit. Aomine hadn't had a fight like that in _years_.

They emerged somewhere near the park and rinsed off with pond-water, then separated. Seto told them to both stay clear of the gym for a while- "Waterbenders fighting, they'll roust every damn waterbender in town who doesn't have the money to buy their innocence." - and go home. Aomine slunk back to the arena and slept for the afternoon until Kiyoshi poked his head in with a package from a kid who'd told him to give it to Aomine Daiki. Kiyoshi, with great ceremony, took one yuan from Aomine to tip the kid with.

Aomine opened it. No one else was back yet. Inside the envelope was an envelope.

WIth a note.

_Monsoons take care of their own_, it read. In the second envelope was two hundred yuan in crisp clean notes, and Aomine's eyes widened.

He went back inside and put the money on the table, so that Tetsu saw it when he came back in on his way to drop off Nigou before picking up supplies for dinner.

"Aomine-kun," said Tetsu, fingering the notes.

"Got a new job," Aomine said, lying on the platform and yawning, wincing. The glasses-guy's hits were beginning to make themselves felt, and cracking into counter hadn't been good for him either. He was getting soft- Kagami and Kise hit hard, sure, but their practice was cushioned by enough padding to wrap china in. He'd have to get better at taking hits. Not that many people managed to land one on him.

"Good job?" said Tetsu, climbing up on the ladder to look at Aomine' face. Nigou sat at the foot of the ladder and whined.

Aomine remembered meeting that other waterbender strike for strike for strike with all the motions of an endless shifting sea, and how Ryou had pulled him along with surprising strength and determination when Aomine would have lagged and been left behind. Tetsu was still holding onto the notes gingerly, carefully, and they rustled in his grasp. Aomine could go out to stock up for dinner with him. With that money, they could afford a few treats.

"Yeah," he said. "Gonna see if I can get more."


	14. Side Story: Takao and Midorima

Being technically discharged and thus at annoyingly loose ends was beginning to wear on Takao. Now and then some noise was made about his reassignment, or at least a further attachment, some bigwigs coming to Republic City and a suitably official-looking escort to be provided for them. Takao had begun to regard these mysterious bureaucrats on the same level as the Lion Turtle. Not that he was important enough to be escorting anyone actually in charge of getting anything done, of course.

No, he was more of a good-time-had-by-all kind of guy. Best noodles in the city? He could do that. Seedy underground pro-bending matches and the best seats in the house? He could _do_ that. The best fire flakes still made by the same family for four generations, and the view from Avatar Aang Memorial Island? He couldn't fail to be a welcome wagon so welcoming that any bigwigs whatsoever wouldn't be enchanted with Republic City.

And then Midorima.

He snubbed the noodles. "Highly inauthentic," he sniffed at Narook's, pushing up his glasses. Narook had actually come over the counter at his head, and Takao had had to push Midorima out before a diplomatic incident was spilled all over the floor like discarded broth.

"Low-class and improper utilization of the bending arts," he sneered at probending, and when Miyaji rose up to take up the defence of his beloved Rabaroos Kimura had to stuff water-winter-melons into his maw for hours to calm him down.

"I _hate_ fire flakes," said Midorima flatly.

"You just came from the Fire Nation," said Takao, exasperated, and drooping over his rickshaw.

"I hated them there too," said Midorima, looking at the distance along the bay. It was a shame that all the scowls twisted his looks. Takao had never seen a waterbender with green eyes before, and in the fire nation court fashions tailored to his body, Midorima might have been popular, if Takao dared to risk taking him to a bar and then never being able to drink there again. If he could ever be persuaded to let go the weird things the almanac said was his lucky item for the day, too. The thing he appeared to most like was the radio, if only because of the horoscope broadcast every morning. Everything else was wrong. The streets were too dirty. The girls dressed wrong- that is to say, not against an arctic winter in layers and layers of furs- and the food wasn't good. He was _impossible_.

He didn't even like the water that they got in Republic City. "It's foul," he had said, and then Takao had just slumped his shoulders and sighed.

And then one day Takao dropped by as usual- because talk about bloody _nothing to do_, when all his former shipmates were back out on patrol- only to be told that Midorima was at the hospital, and had been there all night.

"Oh, spirits someone's finally taken a swing at him," said Takao, and then was off.

He found Midorima in the hospital, talking earnestly with the doctors- the _same_ doctor, in fact, who'd pulled him off active combat duty. Well. There were really only so many waterbending healer doctors, even if they all appeared to be listening to Midorima... and... nodding.

"Midorima-kun, we were very pleased to have your expertise last night," said the doctor.

"And a lot of this morning," said another, laughing.

"It was nothing," said Midorima, but he had bruised shadows under his eyes, and his usually perfect clothes were rumpled. "Without your experience, I would not have caught-"

"Shin-chan?" said Takao, more out of surprise than rudeness.

The doctor turned, and raised an eyebrow. "Well," he said. "Lieutenant Takao. Do you know Midorima?"

"I've been reassigned," said Takao.

"Takao?" said Midorima, and blinked hard, rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes. "Oh, we had-"

"No, no," Takao said. "I mean, just- they said you were here."

"I've been studying here, on and off," said Midorima. "I'm not needed in the talks and meetings, so-"

The doctor sighed. "Midorima is one of the most talented young healers we've ever seen," he said. "If we'd had someone like him around when- well. We were lucky to have him around last night. Go home, Midorima. Take some rest. You did good work last night. Lieutenant, your charge."

Midorima wobbled out of the hospital and into the rickshaw.

"It was new moon last night," said Takao. That was the kind of thing you kept track of, on the ship.

"My bending was reduced but not exeunt," said Midorima. "I'm much stronger than they are. Their bending was gone entirely."

"Huh," said Takao, and demurred telling Midorima that he had several unpleasant-looking bodily fluid stains on his expensive, well-made shirt. His jacket was still folded next to him, though. Maybe he'd felt the shirt was worth being beyond salvage. "Should- do you want to go back?"

"I want some noodles now," said Midorima.

Takao looked at him in surprise.

"I said that they were inauthentic," said Midorima, blinking at Takao like _he_ was the wronged one, the one who had the right to wonder if Takao was soft in the head. "I didn't say they were _bad_."


	15. Book 2: Chapter 3

Kagami was the first of the others to return. Nigou greeted him by launching his small body down the staircase shaft onto Kagami's face, barking excitedly. Kagami screamed and clutched the railing to keep from falling or dropping the lion-dog as Nigou wiggled all over his face and shoulders. Kuroko and Aomine failed to be of any of help whatsoever.

"It's nice how close you and Nigou are," said Kuroko placidly, when Kagami complained.

There wouldn't be any practice tonight. Even the most undesirable of training slots became hot-ticket items the night right before a match, and Riko had advised them to get some rest anyway. Aomine, looking at the slump of Kagami's shoulders while the firebender splashed his face in the bucket, privately agreed. Half his two hundred would be more than enough for all of them to eat out tonight, and tomorrow's food sorted, too. After Kise rolled in through the open window stretching out his shoulders and complaining about being chewed out by half the elders for falling asleep during meditation, that only left Satsuki. It was decided that they would go down first and wait for her, both to save her the trip up and because _they were starving_. Aomine's injuries bit deep, and it was a good thing he was wearing his long-sleeved tunic, or he would have had a hard time explaining them.

"Lightning bending really takes it out of me," said Kagami.

"It would if you kept it up for that long," said Kise. "I hear they're moving to a more bending-based electricity generation system, but-" He trailed off as the other three stared at him. "That's all I hear about," Kise protested. "The energy crisis this, the bender representation that. Villages in the Earth Kingdom dying out and the Northern Tribe's ice melting. It never stops."

"Sometimes it's hard to remember that Kise-kun is indeed the Avatar," remarked Kuroko.

"Kurokochi!" Kise protested, but then shouting echoed down the hall to them, and he stopped talking to listen.

"-and if you think you can show up with your thugs and threaten me," came Riko's voice, bouncing down the corridors, "Then you can go jump in the bay and good riddance to bad rubbish. I run a clean establishment, and I will not have you coming in here _flinging accusations_-"

The source of this commotion became clear at the voice that drawled right out at them, slicker than a penguin-seal's skin. "Miss Aida, there's no accusations here," said Imayoshi, who didn't look much different form when they'd met the first day in Republic City. "We just thought, if you had any idea about the originators of the, um, _disturbance_ that occurred today, you'd maybe drop a word through the pro-bender network that Ah'd like a personal talk with him or her. Maybe a bit about how running with the Red Monsoons is kinda bad for the soul. You know this place was-"

Riko wasn't done yet, and cut him off just as decisively. "Don't you dare spout a word at me about this being old Triple Threat territory," she snapped at him. "You know that sort of thing's been defunct for years and I bought this place free and clear."

Aomine had to give the guy his props; Imayoshi didn't seem to have any problems standing squarely in the blast radius. Their own group stopped right in their tracks rather than attract the attention of an angry Aida Riko. "I'm jus' sayin'," he drawled, the words longer and slower than ever. Momoi was standing a little behind him with two guys right out of the brute squad, tall and capable-looking and calmly watching anyone who passed with 'try not to decide to do something about me' glances. Momoi was torn between looking embarrassed and looking decided, an expression Aomine most clearly recalled from the first time he'd seen Momoi break a civillian's arm in public. It looked like Satsuki had landed on her feet, too. "The last time the Monsoons started prowling around here, y'were glad enough fer our help. Let's help each other."

"I no longer have any trouble with the Red Monsoons," said Riko, with finality. Well outside the perimeter on the other side were some groups with a tendency to clump in threes, clearly other pro-bending hopefuls. Imayoshi must have caught Riko coming in for her night's work. "And I'm not getting mixed up in all that business again. Get off my property."

"I'm not on your property," Imayoshi pointed out. His gaze traveled over the arena and somehow managed to pass over them without seeming to notice them, leaving them in no doubt that Imayoshi had noticed them perfectly well.

"Get out of sight of my property," she snarled. "_Now_." Imayoshi shrugged and waved off his guys, bowing in farewell to Riko and casting a long lazy glance along the semi-gathered crowd, which took immediate pains to make themselves scarce in case Imayoshi remembered their faces.

Momoi raised a hand. "I, um, live here," she said.

"So ya do," said Imayoshi. "We'll take our leave, Miss Aida. See ya tomorrow, Momoi."

Satsuki waved at them as they went off, and got friendly nods from the other two. Nigou barked happily and ran towards the girls, leaving the rest of them no choice but to follow and no route to take anyway but right past Riko's glare.

Riko shot Momoi a Look.

"I didn't think this was going to happen when they said they'd walk me home," said Momoi, apologetically. "Anyway, there _was_ trouble today. Down in Dragonflats, which is... what did he say, Red Monsoon territory? Did you know they dispatched an airship? I'd never seen one that moved so fast before."

Riko shot her an icy look. "Dragonflats is Triple Threats, as you very well know," she said, a touch sourly. "Nothing but the best for our police force. And I'll take advice from one of Imayoshi's lackeys when I feel like it, thank you very much."

Momoi shrugged, rather in imitation of her boss who'd just strolled off. "We've all got to make a living," she said.

Riko muttered something and then strode back into the Arena's depths. They shrank back against the trash cans to avoid catching her eye, but Nigou earned himself an ear-scratch from the girl, petting him with no regard for her expensive clothes and his growing mane of fur. Kiyoshi detached himself from the wall to follow Riko- the first time any of them had been aware that the earthbender was there, watching. He'd almost melted into the background, but he'd been there. Huh. Aomine wondered if Imayoshi had known that Riko hadn't been facing him down alone before he'd backed off at seeing three clearly strong benders come out of the Arena. Kiyoshi was clearly no ordinary earthbender. He waved at all of them; automatically they waved back.

"Boys," said Satsuki, smiling. "Why are you all down?"

Aomine rubbed his forefinger and thumb at her. "We're flush tonight," he said, pleased. "We're going out to eat."

"Momoi-san," said Kuroko, looking after the closing path in the crowd Imayoshi had left in his wake, "Were you with-"

"I got something more secure today too," said Satsuki, brightly, and slipped her arm through Tetsu's, reassuringly, "Where should we go? I know you like Water Tribe food and I heard good things about Narook's, but that whole section of town is closed off tonight."

"I know a place," said Kise, who'd reached for a glider he hadn't brought down with him when the shouts became apparent. He looked at Kiyoshi's back with curiosity.

"Vegetarian?" said Kagami.

"No," said Aomine, decisively. "Kise can chew his rabbit food, but I want some meat."

.0.

By the time Aomine woke the next day, it was late afternoon and Kagami had left food on the table, but had gone back to his own sleep, spread out on the futon beside Aomine's bare-chested in the fire nation style, his pendant gleaming in the sun sparkling through the huge attic windows. Aomine vaguely remembered waking at some point to eat breakfast and then promptly passing out again once he was full, Kise promising to return earlier than his usual today and Satsuki extracting the promise from Kagami to not try to go in to work today. Tetsu had told Nigou to look after them, which Aomine felt was over-ambitious. Probably Tetsu just hadn't wanted to bring the mutt to work with him today.

Aomine yawned and stretched. Sleeping for nearly twelve hours straight had fixed the last of the kinks in his body from fighting that waterbender- that other waterbender- and he felt raring to go. Kagami looked better, too, after eating what Aomine swore was twice his body weight in food last night and sleeping in. You could tell that Kagami was royalty, really. He didn't have a scratch or scar on his body, or they'd all been healed up pretty by expensive and experienced royal healers, and only Fire Nation royals had those extraordinarily sharp and clear yellow-red eyes, the product of years of inbreeding. Aomine had thought, working the boats at Kiyoshi Island, he'd seen every type of person there was, but in Republic City the races had mixed and produced fog-eyed earthbenders, firebenders with mud-brown colouring, and dark-skinned airbenders with their fine hair shaved from their heads. Kise himself, airbender to the bone, had the yellow fire eyes, picked up by his nomad mother from some other traveler somewhere in the cold nights bison-back over an arctic sea.

Aomine himself couldn't have been more stereotypically Water Tribe if he'd tried, even then a rarity in their village just on the edge of earth and water. But they'd never found his parents among the Southern Tribe, and Aomine had never bothered looking further afield for what he did not miss.

Nigou woke when Aomine padded down, rinsing out his mouth with water from the bucket he iced over and then broke with one well-aimed fist. He fed Nigou an ice shard, then absently erased the last of the bruises from his chest.

"We're going to win tonight," he said to Nigou. No one was better at bending than he was, not even some bespectacled rich boy important enough to have a United Fleet soldier escort him out to lunch. "Those two aren't bad, either. We'll do it."

"Why are you talking to _the dog_," said Kagami, blearily staring at them over the railing that kept them from rolling out of bed to the ground.

"He's smarter than _you_," said Aomine. "Besides, I think he's Tetsu's spirit animal. I've heard about those. They're smart. Look how much he looks like Tetsu."

"My brother has one," said Kagami. "But it's not always like that."

"A spirit animal?" said Aomine.

"Yeah," said Kagami. "He's- seriously, how do you not know this shit? Everyone knows this shit. I think I met hermits on mountains who knew this stuff about the crown prince."

"I had more important things to think about," said Aomine, with dignity. This was partially true. Until the Kise had fallen into their lives, Aomine had not even known or cared that the Avatar was the same age as them, and had not needed to in the least. He certainly hadn't known jack shit about the Fire Nation royal family, or any other royal family, for that matter. "Like I do right now. Like how badly we're going to kick everyone's asses tonight."

Kagami grunted. He didn't usually talk about his brother, but had been sleepy enough to offer something; Aomine didn't push. He rather thought you didn't walk out of a palace and not go back in two years for no reason, even if you were Kagami, who had thrown in his lot with them without blinking, who was clearly mentally defective in a million myriad ways.

"We ready?" said Kagami, once he was properly awake and Aomine had whined him into assembling last night's substantial leftovers into something even more appetising.

"_I'm_ ready," said Aomine, which was all the answer he needed to give.


	16. Side Story: Kiyoshi Island

The world rocked beneath him as he woke up. The wind and rain pattered on his face, and the ground- no, the curve of the boat, rough cloth over wood, continued to roil around him. Daiki coughed, choked. He spat up sea-water and bile, and rough hands pounded him on the back and kept him down in the boat all at once, yelling "DOWN, STAY DOWN." Daiki stayed down. He felt ill and terrible. All up his side he ached like he had been swimming too long, like he had run into an igloo wall.

Around them the ocean raged like a polar bear dog in full fury. The sharp specks of salt water thrown up pelted the faces of everyone in their boats, many boats tiny in comparison to the wreckage around which they circled warily. The entire village had turned out to try and save the passengers of a ship going down in the waters just out from Kiyoshi Island.

Daiki clung miserably to the side of the boat and coughed and coughed. He wasn't the only one. A woman he didn't know was sitting up and helping a man vomit out over the side of the boat, and the man who had made him stay down was reaching over the side of the boat for someone else, dressed in the blues of the Water Tribes, being propelled up towards him by an unsteady waterspout Their boat hung back from the grim chaos of the wreckage outright, and was larger than the tiny skiffs being propelled by white-faced Waterbenders struggling to control their boats in the face of the wind and rain, of the ocean's fury. They picked out survivors and tried to direct them to the bigger boats hanging, they tried to lever apart the wreckage before it could go under and take everyone they had not yet saved. They didn't have _enough_ Waterbenders, thought Daiki, and those they did have weren't strong enough to contend with all this and more.

They fought the ocean for every person they hauled up onto the boats, and the ocean made them pay. Rain and waves pelted onto Daiki's head in equal measure. The woman had pulled herself to the center of the boat, and her arm around Daiki was an iron bar. Daiki heard a loud noise cutting through the shouts and the wind, a long belling horn. Heads turned all over the boats, and Daiki saw looks of mingled relief and disappointment, weariness cutting lines into their faces visible even through the storm.

"Back to the village," muttered the guy standing over Daiki. The Waterbenders were moving now in tandem, pulling away from the ship and sweeping the boats and the skiffs back to the shore, looking hunted and afraid.

Daiki was afraid. He looked in every direction and it didn't seem like they were going to make it, that the waves would take them down. They weren't- they needed to get to the shore, they weren't going to get back to the shore, none of them would. Other boats with more people were coming into view, and they were also struggling. He couldn't- he closed his eyes, and with every bit of his body felt the sea roil below him, water everywhere, trying to move in one direction as the benders tried pushed them home. It was like fighting the moon for control of the tides. He felt it deep within himself. Push, and pull. Move with the ocean, not against it. Push. Pull. Move-

Screams were muffled in the crash of a massive wave, and the another, and another. The people left on the shore ready to receive the rescuers watched in horror as the waves came on. They fled up the shore as quickly as they could, but some didn't move fast enough, reduced to clawing at the sand and trying to fight the swirling chaos of crashing waves. Some boats came apart entirely in the first giant wave, and the ones which kept their shape vanished into the the water. Only some bobbed up again.

Daiki scrabbled onto the sand choking out seawater. He was seized by a- he couldn't see, he was still gasping water out of his lungs and blinking it out his eyes, but their grip was strong and sure and they handled his limp body with as much ease as one could expect. He was dropped onto grass and soil- solid ground, _blessed_ solid ground- and other strong hands took him up and pulled him further in, away from the water. Maybe Daiki passed out. He wasn't really sure. He could still hear the storm even in his sleep.

When he woke he had been changed into dry clothes, and was lying on a pallet next to others, others he recognized in a vague way from the . He didn't see the woman who had held him on the boat. He didn't see the guy who had been piloting their boat. He started to try to speak and immediately had to vomit _again_, throwing up into a bucket placed nearby.

A girl came running down the line of people calling to older folks that someone else was awake. She put her hands over his and helped him hold the bucket steady, put her hand on his head when he was done. A man made a face at the bucket and called water from another one further down, pressing it over Daiki's chest with a weak glow. He was exhausted. He had been one of the waterbenders out there circling the ship.

"Are you okay?" said the girl, looking at Daiki right up close and concerned. "Are you? We think you came from the ship."

"His lungs are clear," said the Waterbender. "You'll be alright, kid." He pulled at his face, then said, "More than I can say for a lot of us." Daiki did not think that he and the girl were meant to hear him say that. He could see the bender was shattered with tiredness, though.

"My dad-" said the girl, looking up at the bender as he stood in response to another call.

"They're searching, Satsuki," he said. "You'll be the first person to know, I promise."

Daiki looked at the girl. "Satsuki?" he said. His voice didn't sound right to him. It scratched and hurt, like he had been screaming and not known it.

"Yes," she said, and tried to pat his head again, holding onto him with trembling hands. She was warm. "That's my name. What's yours?"


	17. Book 2: Chapter 4

Shin-chan was still seething. Takao felt a little out of temper himself, but after a night of watching Midorima rage up and down the police station at being arrested like the rest of the plebeians the lieutenant was more exhausted than anything else. Even Shin-chan had lost steam as the sun had come up, going from ranting against the hold that gangs still had in the poorer parts of Republic City and demanding some accountability to grumbling over a cup of tea while- huh.

Actually, Takao wasn't sure what Midorima was doing now. Little whirlpools formed and dissipated in the untouched third cup of tea, and Shin-chan stared unseeing at the statue of Avatar Kiyoshi on the table in front of him. He'd rarely seen Shin-chan like this. His coat was off again in deference to the stifling heat of the underground waiting room, and through the open collar of his undershirt Takao could see the dark shapes of bruising. Their elevated status had granted them a separate room in which to wait for the representative of the Northern Water Tribe to be roused to fetch them. Takao didn't expect Nakatani to even hurry his breakfast. Boys who got themselves in trouble brawling in the streets of Republic City would elicit none of his sympathy, and deserved everything they got. Takao, all of twenty, generally felt five again under Nakatani's cold blue stare, icy enough to quell even Midorima mid-complaint.

"We'll be out in a bit," Takao lied, gripping Midorima by the shoulder. "Don't mind, Shin-chan."

"I don't _mind_," said Midorima, but the tea stopped moving. "It was obvious we were not the cause of the disturbance. There were plenty of eyewitness accounts to that effect."

"Then what is it?" said Takao, who had learned early on it was best to press Shin-chan for direct answers with direct questions. "Is it that guy you threw down with?"

Shin-chan's eyes narrowed behind his glasses, but his silence was answer enough.

Takao stepped back and stretched. "He was a shock," he said. "But there're a lot of benders in Republic City, Shin-chan. Some of them had to be good. He was just really good."

Midorima looked down at his tea again. Two distinct waves formed and chased each other around and around in an endless cycle, push, pull.

"You're still the strongest waterbender _I _ know," said Takao.

Midorima said nothing. Takao peered at his face. "You think he's stronger than you," said Takao, with disbelief.

"He could be," said Midorima, his voice colored with faint distaste. "Neither of us exerted ourselves yesterday. And he's sloppy. There's no training there to speak of, he must be self-taught." But he had stood his ground against Midorima Shintarou, and he had held it. Midorima was matchless among the Northern Tribe, where he had been born, and the best waterbenders of the Southern Tribe. He had tried himself against Fleet-trained waterbenders who handled hurricanes and was considered a master in his own right, a natural-born genius. Takao sometimes had the feeling that this proud, prickly kid was better than even his own opinion of himself. But like recognizes like, even brawling in a noodle shop with a gangster who moved like bottled lightning, who had dragged on Midorima's bending like fighting the ocean-tide. Like had gone snarling for Shin-chan without a pause, the stranger arrowing in him, and known like, Midorima practically ready to drag him out into the street to settle their conflict.

Takao was not sure it would be comfortable to believe in fate.

"The benders are all going to go to ground now," said Takao, soothingly. Midorima let the tea lapse back in stillness. "You two fucked up the sewer system with all that water, and it was noisy enough that they had to drag out the air patrols and shut down that district. They're stepping up security for the conference, too, so we'll have fleet soldiers along soon watching to see that no one even breathes hard on our VIPs. If he has any sense, he'll lay low for a nice long while until they forget about him. You don't need to worry about him, Shin-chan."

"I'm not _worried_," said Midorima, acidly, but was diverted. "The Fleet is returning?"

"They've only been talking about it all month," said Takao. When he'd been serving, he'd looked forward to the three weeks of land-leave back in Republic City, with _people_. Food_ worth eating_. And the sensation of solid ground under his feet. Now, Takao would have given anything to be out there again, on patrol up and down the eastern coastline.

"Akashi will be returning, then," said Midorima, and drummed long fingers on the table.

"Akashi?" said Takao. "Er, do you mean-"

"Commander Akashi of the Second Division of the United Republic Fleet," said Midorima, patiently as though to a very small child. "I thought you served in the Second Division."

"You know him?" said Takao, a little weakly. He'd known Midorima was a big-shot, but _Commander Akashi_...

"We play pai-sho by telegraph," said Midorima. "You've seen me transmit the messages."

Takao gaped. "I thought-" _that was just something else weird you did_, Takao did not say. Instead he said, "You two are friends?" That would be about right, actually. Midorima was seventeen, and the commander a year older, and- no, it was still weird.

Somehow Shin-chan looked put out. "We're acquainted," he said. He tipped his head forward and his eyes narrowed behind his glasses, and Takao thought, for a second, a wild unreasoned unthinking second, _if I could talk to the commander, if I could just talk to him and make him understand-_

"I need to find today's lucky item," Midorima said. Takao bit down on the words.

"Fine," he said to the waterbender. "What is it today?"

.0.

Hyuuga kicked the last of the would-be pro-benders from the office and glared in satisfaction at the finally completed wall chart. It was always the same with these jackasses. They thought they could come in and wave a lot of cash around, buy themselves a better place or their match an easier judgement. Hyuuga didn't mind, really. He regarded it as a kind of vocal warm-up. Even Imayoshi's visit yesterday after the disturbance hadn't done anything to quell them.

That had put Riko _and_ Kiyoshi into a bad mood. But the gossip was that some bigwig's son had been mixed up in it, and that Red Monsoons weren't being too vocal about disclaiming their involvement, and if any of the pro-benders had been stupid enough to get mixed up with stone-cold psychos like the Red Monsoons Hyuuga was going to find some way to rip their intestines out through their nostrils. And they would end up disqualified and banned from the league. Riko had been very clear on that, when she'd started. You stayed out of trouble or you stayed out of the Arena.

Hyuuga hadn't anticipated much trouble with this year's batch, to be honest. The Rabba-Roo's shit-starting waterbender had gone off to have a baby, and by and large the remainder who'd qualified this far had their eyes firmly fixed on the prize. They also knew better than to get mixed up with gangs. But the new team... Hyuuga's eyes slid to their name written on the chart. The Lion-Dogs. Living in the Arena's attic, of all places. Kiyoshi had taken an immediate liking to them, somehow managing to offer them the attic and a slot and his services as a trainer in the space of five minutes, smiling all the while like butter wouldn't melt in mouth.

"They're good kids," said Kiyoshi, doing his mind-reading thing. Hyuuga jumped, and glared. He'd been staring fixedly at the Lion-Dog's slot as his thoughts raced.

Kiyoshi smiled at him. "They're good kids," he repeated. "They'll do fine. They've been doing much better in practice."

Hyuuga glared at him some more, seeking to drill holes into Kiyoshi's empty brain with the sheer power of his mind. Some day, it would work. Some day. "You've been at all their practices?' he said. The referee had gone to a few himself- first to see where Kiyoshi had run off to and then mainly to spare himself some pain later, when he'd seen how... bad, probably, wasn't the word. Hyuuga had been watching benders for long enough he could fancy he had an eye for talent, and they were certainly better than _him_, or at least Kagami was. If Hyuuga had had half his training, maybe two years ago they wouldn't have been- well. Maybe the word was _green_, so new to this way of bending. Hyuuga had seen fifty ways to roll them up in the first round, ways that had nothing to do with bending and everything to do with skill. It had irritated him.

"You don't have enough work to do keeping this place clean? What do we even pay you for?" _Why them_, he did not ask. _You don't bend in two years, and suddenly you're all over the Avatar and his little friends, acting like nothing's changed. What changed, Kiyoshi?_ He did not ask any of these things, because he knew he would get no answer, and only give Kiyoshi the mingled pain and satisfaction of being asked.

"But Hyuuga," said Kiyoshi, earnestly. "I think nurturing the young may be my calling."

"They're three years younger than us at most," pointed out Hyuuga. "And one of them is, though I am aware you may not have noticed, _the Avatar_."

"Yes," said Kiyoshi. "Their earthbender. Hyuuga, don't you know this?"

Hyuuga punched the table. His hat wobbled on the edge of it.

"Are we still keeping quiet on that?" said Izuki, who had come in to survey tonight's line-up and devise his puns ahead of time. He sat curled into the sofa in the corner, scribbling madly in his notebook. The hot honey-lemon drink Mitobe made for him on match nights sat steaming at his hand. "His manifestation could be manifestly be good for us."

"We won't be able to avoid it down the road if they get through to quarters and semis," said Hyuuga. "But he asked us to keep it quiet for now and I agree. If he loses, fine, they're out of the tournament. If he wins, that's a shining endorsement of us and so many people will want to see what happens they _can't_ shut us down."

"Aren't Air Nomads pacifists?" said Izuki, thoughtfully.

"We're going to find out," said Hyuuga. "Do you really think-"

"I think they'll do great," said Kiyoshi. "They're very talented benders, you know."

"Yes," said Hyuuga, drily. "So you've said."

.0.

Kise went quiet as the evening wore on and turned into night, gathering up his legs into the lotus position and meditating to calm his nerves. To Aomine's surprise, Kagami did so too, mirroring him on the other side of the attic, back against the wall. At first Aomine just thought Kagami had gone to sleep, but he was hot to the touch, and he breathed deep and even, in a regular pattern.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Kagami waited to push out his breath before replying. "Firebending comes from the breath," he said. In, expanding with it, and out. "I'm breathing."

Aomine watched him for a moment before looking at Kise. "And you?" he said.

Kise opened one eye. "Mou, Aominechi," he said. "Don't you ever get nervous? We're just calming down, that's all."

Aomine lifted an eyebrow. "Is that all?" he said. "There's nothing to be worried about." Nigou, the only energetic one, chattered and bounced in puppy-talk, attacking the bit of knotted rope he had as one of his toys and occasionally making one of his repeated attempts to reach the upper level of the sleeping platforms, and thus Kise and Kagami. His doggy legs, however, could not manage ladders, much to his clear disgust.

"Look how sad he is," said Aomine, after the fifth such attempt. He stretched his long arm down from the bunk, and watched Nigou leap higher and higher in an attempt to catch it. Aomine stole Kagami's pillow and dangled that too. Kise laughed, watching them go at it. Kagami just kept his eyes closed.

Aomine lifted the pillow up. Nigou hung on the edge of it, jaws clamped and growling. "Good dog," he said to the puppy. "Aren't you a good boy."

Nigou wagged his tail, then let go and dropped to the floor, landing on his feet. He ran to the ladder and barked at it. When he judged the time was right, he belly-flopped down once more. Momoi squealed.

"Dai-chan!" she called.

Aomine, sniggering, dropped over the side of the bunk and reached down the hole to grab Nigou off Satsuki's face. She passed him a few bundles while she was at it, heavy ones which he carried to the table.

"Thank you, Aomine-kun," said Tetsu, bringing up the rear with yet more.

Kagami set out their dinner, while Kise and Aomine helped haul all the packages up the stairs.

"What's this," said Aomine, already scrabbling at the wrappings, "Where've you two been, anyway-" he fell silent as he uncovered brand-new pro-bending uniforms, black and red and blue, the helmets with tempered glass faceplates tinted blue and an embroidered lion-dog silhouette on the chest in white. There was even a vest for Nigou, with in the Lion-Dog colours. Aomine lifted up the uniforms and stared at them and stared.

"Riko-san helped us," said Momoi, looking pleased. "I forgot to tell you yesterday, but I got a sign-on bonus from my new- oh, stop staring and put them on. I can see you want to."

Kise was already stripping out of his shirt, Tetsu fitting Nigou with his mascot uniform. Satsuki helped Aomine bandage his hands while he put on the padding. It fit perfectly.

"Now you have to win," she remarked, adjusting the helmet on Aomine's head. "Can't let all this go to waste."

Aomine flexed his hands in the gloves and curled them around her elbows, inexpressibly happy. Kise's golden hair shone against the black, his arrow hidden under the headpiece, and Kagami stretched out on the floor, sleek and strong. Tetsu fed Nigou tidbits off his plate and petted the puppy as it tried over and over again to bite at the vest, astonished at discovering this strange thing called clothing.

"We're going to win," he said to her.

"I know," she said, and smoothed her hand over his hair, easy and familiar.

.0.

Tonight was the last of the qualifiers. The teams who'd left it until now to try for their slots were those newer and less exciting teams who didn't have generous sponsors or the skill to settle their participation early and then train to match up with the best. Consequently, the Arena didn't expect the best crowd tonight. Only the friends and family of such teams tended to show up, mostly for moral support.

Even then, they were _loud_. Aomine had forgotten, in the one week since the last match, the massive curving glass roof and hundreds of lights, the way that the announcer's voice rolled off the walls and the water and bounced back in a solid wall of sound. The Lion-Dogs were ignored as they walked into the waiting area.

Qualifier rules were simple. Teams fought in rotations, and it wouldn't be uncommon to come up against another team at least twice. Each team had an allowance of two losses before they were kicked out, and the winners went on fighting. Strategies began to tell in the later rounds, when you could find yourselves playing three matches in quick succession, enough to tire even the hardiest benders. There was very little of the flashy moves and combos which might end up displayed at a regular match- here, what counted was your ability to stay in the ring and keep going. You could get lucky in a qualifier- if you were _very_ lucky. To simply forfeit when a teammate dropped from exhaustion wasn't uncommon. Ten teams would become one pretty fast.

Some of the rookie teams had no stamina worth speaking of. Two rounds of fast-paced action was enough to tire them out, and by their third match they were exhausted, even after sucking down energy drinks and taking frequent rests while the other teams played. The Lion-Dogs' more traditional bending roots showed here to best advantage. After only a short break, they were up again and raring, with no substantial loss of concentration and power. Hyuuga's shouting had taken some effect- Aomine kept himself in check, losing himself in the one-two rhythm of the Arena, flinging one shot and then the next with deadly accuracy. They took out their first opponents that way: a mixed trio with some fancy combos and a steady firebender who was the foundation of their team play. Aomine went for her without blinking. Kise followed suit and soon she fell into the drink, leaving the other two blinking desperately at each other and unable to pick who they should have ganged up on. Kagami knocked the earthbender back two zones- he wobbled and fell, calling for his teammate- and then Aomine knocked the last one out with a feint and duck. Sparring with the Red Monsoons hadn't been a waste of time. All the pro-benders fought like this, in this same way. Aomine almost felt sorry for them. The Lion-Dogs won by knockout in the third round. Hyuuga breathed a sigh of relief and waved the next two in.

"Lion-Dogs not going to take this _lion_ down," said Izuki. "Next up, Buffalo-Yaks and Swamp-Cats, digging in!"

Buffalo-Yaks were wily. An older team up for their second shot at a qualifier, they'd learned enough to let the youngsters punch themselves out trying to get them out of the way early and then just had to outlast them. They had a new waterbender, Tsugawa, and he had the spark that steady Iwamura and clever Kasuga needed to pep up a steady combination that was the foundation of their success in previous years. Their bending wasn't beautiful, but it was solid, every hit well-placed, not a teammate out of step. They traded blows carefully with the Lion-Dogs in the first round of their second match of the night, knocking them back one by one to win the round. Kise made them pay for this in the next round, pounding Iwamura until the other earthbender slid into their second zone, sounding the buzzer.

In the third round Kagami rolled across the zone chased by Iwamura's earth discs and into Kise's line of vision. Tsugawa saw his chance in the split second of distraction and whammied Kise straight-on. Kise, no featherweight, was blasted back two zones in an instant, teetering right on the edge, his arms pinwheeling. Aomine felt the rush of air- that idiot was going to _air bend, _and get them disqualified-

"KISE," Aomine shouted. Kise, startled, went limp and toppled off the side with a cry.

"LION-DOGS DOWN AN EARTHBENDER," roared Izuki over the splash. "THEY'RE WITHOUT A ROCK NOW!"

Aomine ground his teeth and tried a blast at Tsugawa, but dunking Kise had broken the Lion-Dog's rhythm, and Buffalo-Yaks won on points, two rounds to one.

Kise was waiting for them, wincing, with a bag of ice pressed against his shin. He'd asked another waterbender to make it, to preserve his fiction of being just an earthbender. Aomine melted it at once and set to work, drawing the heat off the muscle while Kise sighed in relief.

"That's going to slow me down," he said. Kise didn't earthbend as much as he bent- well, anything else. "Dammit, I thought only the lousy teams were left."

"That's what makes it fun, right?" said Kagami, gulping down whole lemons floating in honey, Momoi's idea of an energizing snack. No one except the teams were allowed into the waiting areas during the Qualifiers, more out of space concerns than anything else. Five teams had already been eliminated, and some of them were crying quietly in the corridor outside. Momoi and Kuroko sat in the stands with Nigou and Kuroko's friends from work, who cheered gamely for the Lion-Dogs.

"We can't afford another loss," said Aomine. "The rest of the teams are shit-" the next waiting team gave him a dirty look "-but those Buffalo-Yaks knew what they were doing. Their fucking waterbender likes to play with his targets."

Kagami was watching the continuing fights. "The firebender is saving himself," he reported. "They know they've got to last the night to the final match and they're lining us up before he strikes so they count for two of us at a time. We won't have it easy if we burn out before we see them again."

"I'm still fresh," said Aomine.

"Same," said Kise, determinedly. "He won't get me like that next time."

"You almost bent yourself back up," said Kagami.

Kise waved his hands in the universal gesture for _forget it._ "It won't happen again," he said. "That water hurts, though." He pouted, which probably meant he was feeling better.

"Don't fall into it," Aomine said. Nothing was broken; Kise was just going to be sore and bruised, even with what Aomine could do for him.

"NEXT MATCH OTTER-DOGS AND LION-DOGS WHO'S GOING TO BE BARKING TONIGHT?"

"Does he ever stop," said Kagami, looking pained.

"Apparently not," said Kise. "It's nice, though. Usually the commentary is so boring."

"Let's go," said Aomine, and pulled his gloves back on.

As the night wore on and teams were eliminated, Kagami's prediction came true. The Lion-Dogs once again faced up against the Buffalo-Yaks for the final round of the night. Buffalo-Yaks had forfeited a round earlier, leaving the Elbow-Leeches to go up against the Lion-Dogs for the chance to fight Buffalo-Yaks at the final instead of the other way around. As a result, they were refreshed from sitting out, while the Lion-Dogs faced the last match of the night as their third fight in a row, still panting from beating the Elbow-Leeches. True to their name, they hung on and did not let go.

"Damn canny bastards," said Aomine, rolling out his shoulders. He'd been bounced off the ropes a few times and hit the drink twice. The frenetic pace of being battered all night was beginning to tell on him. The crowd was whooping for the Lion-Dogs. Their matches had been well-fought, and Buffalo-Yaks had gone from being the favourites to in imminent danger- _if_ the Lion-Dogs could sustain their pace.

"Second time," said Kise, grimly. He glared at Tsugawa, grinning at them across the line. "Okay, let's go."

Buffalo-Yaks hit the ground running. You could _hear_ the crowd pepping up, and not just because it was the last match, either. Kagami alone of the Lion-Dogs hadn't yet taken a splashing- 'WATER AFRAID OF THIS FIRE BOY FOR ONCE', Izuki yowled- mostly due to a downright supernatural ability to keep his feet, rarely being outright downed by a strike and quick to regain his footing when he did. But that also meant he'd had to cover for his teammates while they were absent from the ring, and with his heavy attacking style and encroaching fatigue he was falling into the rhythms of bending kata, sharp, clean, regular and altogether _predictable_. Kise's leg was hurting again too, from three matches in a row without a pause; he couldn't cover Kagami and Aomine while they attacked as quickly or as cleanly as before.

Kasuga dodged Kagami's four hits and came in with a strong fire blast just shy of the neck, knocking Kagami into Aomine just as Aomine flipped away from Iwamura's attack. As they wobbled, Tsugawa sent a hit which rolled them into the third zone, dangerous territory. BZZT. Aomine dragged himself up, wincing. They were _damn_ close to the edge.

"FIRST ROUND TO THE BUFFALO-YAKS," cried the announcer, somehow still chipper. "VETERANS VS ROOKIES, WHO'S GOT THE TEETH TO LAST OUT THE NIGHT?"

"Bakgami," Aomine hissed, grabbing Kagami's collar as they reassembled at the centre. Kise was limping; the last few stomps had taken it out of him hard. He even starting to lead with his uninjured foot. Anyone could see Kise's hits coming from a mile away.

"He's not holding back anymore," said Kagami. "We're going to have to block har- look, let's take out Iwamura first thing next round. He's holding them down, if we drop him out they'll be wide open the whole round."

"Sounds like a plan," said Kise. He stretched out his leg. Above them, another ref debated with Hyuuga if that Kasuga's strike had been close enough to the head to count, an argument that raged across the empty space with the power of two excellent pairs of lungs.

Tsugawa chose this moment to say, "Does it hurt? Does your leg hurt? Does it really really hurt?"

"...Of course it does," said Kise.

Tsugawa's face split into a wide smile. "That's great," he said. "You know, if you want to forfeit, I'm sure you could be resting that foot with a nice healer in no time."

"We're not going to forfeit," growled Kagami.

"Yeah!" said Kise.

"Well, if you don't want to," said Tsugawa. "Earthbenders are really dependant on their legs, though, so if you push yourself too hard, you might effect your bending ability _forev-_ OW, what was that for."

"You're an obnoxious little twerp," said Kasuga, shaking out his hand.

"Mean!" whined Tsugawa.

"We're going to kick your asses," said Kagami, bristling at the Buffalo-Yaks.

Iwamura said nothing, which Aomine was beginning to appreciate in an opponent. He heard Kagami's strategy clear as day: act pissed at Tsugawa. Look like you're about to take down Tsugawa. Smack Iwamura out of the ring instead.

Kasuga got the yellow fan for his infraction, and they lined up for the second round. As the buzzer sounded, Kagami and Kise threw his punches at Tsugawa, which Iwamura expected. He mounted a quick defense, solid and well-placed- and then Kise's earth discs veered sharply in mid-air, shattering against Iwamura's breastplate in the same breath as Aomine's water blast, sending him ricocheting off the ropes and onto the ground. Kasuga tried to get in the way of Kagami's follow-up strike, but was unprepared for the sheer power of it; it sent them both into the water in one devastating hit. Tsugawa gaped and stared, twisting his head around in confusion, but his teammates were both gone, and now all the Lion-Dogs seized their chance, driving him back one zone, two, until he stumbled into the third zone and they advanced for the knockout blow. Aomine had to give it to the obnoxious little twerp: he _was_ good. But now Kagami and Kise, seeing a quick end to the fighting, were throwing their best without holding back, and they battered him backwards in one final burst of energy, relentless. Aomine finished it with a shot to Tsugawa's head, and the sound of the splash was sweet music to Aomine's ears.

"LION-DOGS WIN BY A KNOCKOUT," yelled Izuki; even a tired and sparse crowd were on their feet, shouting and cheering; and Satsuki and Tetsu loudest of all, even though Aomine couldn't hear them, over being crushed by Kagami and Kise and crushing them back, looking at the red lights signifying their win on the scoreboard, over the roar of victory. "LION-DOGS ARE GOING TO THE TOURNAMENT, WHAT A MATCH, THE LEAGUE BETTER LOOK OUT FOR THEIR LOOKOUT! WHAT A MATCH!"


	18. Book 2: Chapter 5

The day after the first tournament match, Kise stood on his feet and dreamed of victory.

_- match over, and if they had thought that the qualifiers were noisy then they hadn't been prepared for the first round of the tournament, seats packed and fans ready and roaring for it, a tiredbeatdowndowntrodnogoodpeople ready to take Republic City by storm, or at least to watch them do it, ready to be hypedupbunkereddownworkedoutmadetoscreamliketheyme antit ready to watch benders beat the crap out of each other but to do it with style and call it entertainment, ready to watch them bleed and call it glory._

_Aominechi ripped off his helmet and spread his arms to the stands and screamed back out at them in victory. Kagamichi raised Kise's hand in his, laughing under his glass-faced helmet while Kise tried to catch his breath and only caught the fever, Republic City roaring with a hundred thousand voices, one voice, if only you opened your ears to hear it. Republic City jumping electric from house to hovel to heaven radio to radio to the sound of rain falling on the rooftop givemeyourtiredhungrywanderingseekingwanting and I will devour you whole and make you mine as I am yours-_

And to think Kise had once thought this city didn't have a soul.

Someone pointedly cleared their throat, and Kise jumped awake. His glider, which he had been using to prop himself up, slid out of his hands, but Kise grabbed back for it under the glares of the United Republic Council. To a man- and one woman- they eyed him with all the icy power of Republic City's supreme governing body who controlled the United Republic of Nations and the not-unimpressive United Forces.

Kise had always gotten the impression that they thought him a little flighty compared to Avatar Ira, but Kise had also once been told by his predecessor that the best way to deal with uppity rulers who made redundant demands on the Avatar's time was volcanos. Surely there was some kind of middle ground to be found there.

Kise stifled a yawn. He was still sore from the match last night, even more sore than he had been after the elimination matches. Their opponents had been terrifying, advancing with such violence that they'd managed to give Kagamichi his first dunking in the whole season- only to be answered by Kagamichi's own violence, snarling back from the dismal first round with awakening fury and ruthless attacks. Kagamichi was just like his brother in that regard, though Kise knew Kagamichi would not appreciate the comparison.

Kagamichi and Aominechi were still sleeping off last night- or at least they had been when Kise left, called by an urgent messenger to attend the United Republic Council in session. Kise grumbled internally. The trouble with being the Avatar was that you knew _exactly_ what you had done in a past life to deserve this- the same thing you'd done in all the previous ones: save the world.

On the far end of the bench Aida Kagetora sprawled in his chair, scruffy as always. Kise tried to smile at him- as Riko-san's father, surely he'd be a bit more welcoming- but Kise's hopes were dashed by Kagetora's cold stare. The Council's non-bending representative had always been friendly before, but now even more than Nakatani and Araki- definitely not morning people, either of them- his disapproval radiated from the bench.

Takeuchi cleared his throat. "Kise," he said. "We understand you participated in a pro-bending match last night?"

Oh, man. "Yes," said Kise, after a short internal debate about ratting out Kagamichi that began and ended with 'can't, he makes me nice food and never tries to kill me in my sleep'. "We won! My team's called the Lion-Dogs." He smiled winningly.

"We are aware," said Nakatani. He waved a newspaper at Kise. Kise caught only glimpses of the headline, AVATAR and PRO-BE- and LION and WIN.

Oh, _man_.

"Avatar.. Korra... did it too?" he offered, weakly. "There's precedent."

Takeuchi, expressively, put his hand over his eyes. Kise could tell the elder was going to be very relieved when he could turn the job over to Kasamatsu. As soon as he possibly could.

"Really," said Representative Araki. She kept forgetting to drink her tea, and intermittent puffs of steam rose from it as she reheated it each time.

"It's not-" said Harasawa, tugging on his bangs, his metal bracelet coiling and uncoiling on his arm, "wrong. But it does feel inadvisable. The Conference is in a week, and the delegates are already arriving. We understand the finals _are_ running concurrently with the business of the Conference-"

Kagetora _tch_ed. "Listen, prettyboy," he said, leaning over the table. "Pro-bending is a bad business. Half the teams get fielded by gangs and the other half beggar themselves trying to stay in fighting shape as bruisers. We certainly can't stop you from doing whatever you want to do," he said, a little sourly, matching glares with Araki, "And I get you'll want to keep your promises to your teammates, but you gotta think about what it looks like you're condoning as the Avatar."

It was on the tip of Kise's tongue to ask what his daughter was condoning as owner and operator of the biggest local pro-bending league in Republic City, but several internal filters honed over millennia hurriedly cut in and assured him he didn't want to get between the Aidas and _anything_. Instead, Kise straightened up and put on his best don't-bother-me face, somewhere between Aominechi's example and Akashichi's. "I won't let it interfere with my attendance at the conference," Kise said, as if reciting a lesson he'd learned by rote. "And we're not engaging in anything with gangs. We're just trying for the championship, that's all. I wanted to keep my involvement low-key, but obviously that is no longer an option."

"_Obviously_," said Nakatani heavily, "that is clearly the case."

Kise shrugged, expressively. "We can't quit _now_," he said. In someone less exalted it would have been a whine. "We're just having fun." Clerks were beginning to pour into the main room, laden with the business of the day. The Council was starting early, nowadays, as well as ending late. "Are we done here?"

"No," said Araki, impartially eyeing the other representatives, the Avatar, and the busy clerks with an expression that suggested she could think of a great many uses for her hot tea. "We also wanted to inform you that Commander Akashi has called for a closed session and requested your presence. We received the message last night and made arrangements to inform all the relevant parties."

"Then we decided you might as well make the trip," said Kagetora. "It's later in the afternoon, when the _Victory_ docks. Apparently it can't wait."

"Hah," said Kise. "That's early." The flagship of the second division hadn't been supposed to get in until next week.

"As stated," said Nakatani, "it cannot wait."

.0.

Aomine woke to an empty attic and a note on the table reminding him that pro-bending and training did not pay anyone's bills. He rolled his eyes as he read it: he had a job tonight, as Kagami damn well knew, and they had cash, _he_ had cash, lots of it. The job wouldn't even be until the sun went down. Some events were going down, events important enough that even the roaring mechanism of the Republic City pro-bending league ground to a halt as the _Victory_ and her convoy docked and thousands of Fleet soldiers flooded the city, coinciding with the retinues of diplomats of a hundred cities, and with them came out in force the peddlers and entrepreneurs of Republic City, discovering in their heart of naked hearts a sudden burning need to recreate and taste the dishes their long-ago grandmothers made in the lands from which they came, to rediscover the ancient art of bone-carving, to sing nomadic songs and dance like hot coals were beneath their feet. Nakatani had been the one to point out to Riko, acerbically, that further incitement to celebrate and make merry would probably result in a riot. Instead at the end of the week there would be the semi-finals, and then the week after that the finals, ready to be broadcast all over the city to some hundred thousand listening ears, ready to make the champions the toast of Republic City and all the world.

("Giving them time to form into factions," said Nakatani gloomily, "so that instead of a riot we have a nice well-defined small war.")

The Monsoons were awash with jobs (Ryou said) this time of year, and Aomine was living large off work that was practically nothing, a few hours of guard work and the really quite astonishing number of people who owed Mako money, who carefully avoided any mention of what had happened to Narook's and pressed little gifts on Aomine Daiki, the talented new pro-bender, the Red Monsoon's new star. Kazu had taken him behind the wheel of a car for the first time in his life two days ago, and Aomine thought he'd maybe hold out for a black one with red accents, something cool. Tetsu and Satsuki could help him pick, or maybe he'd surprise them with it.

Alone in the attic, Aomine quickly gave up on the idea of cooking lunch for himself and walked over to the restaurant where Ryou part-timed for steady cash because Ryou'd always give Aomine extra, and give it to him free into the bargain, if Aomine just wheedled a little in the right way. The streets were unusually full of people, and the great plaza in front of the Central City Station was choked with stalls setting up for what had been, in the old days, the Fire Days Festival, but now, long after the Hundred Years War, was mostly an excuse to party and let off steam. Here and there Aomine saw bright red uniforms, set up to patrol the streets; people kept going up to them trying to find out when the rest of the Fleet would get in, when the _Victory_ would dock, if it was really true that Commander Akashi had- Aomine stopped listening and moved on.

Satsuki was planning for them to go out on the second night, and maybe the third as well, if they liked it, but she had to work tonight and wouldn't be free. It did look to be shaping up awesome: Aomine even saw a poster which advertised an open-air performance of _The Boy In The Iceberg_. He spotted the place Ryou worked at- a little dive called _Gaku, _set back from the main road. There was a guy setting up the frame of a stall outside it, ready to be dragged over the door and used to sell food straight from the kitchen during the festival. He glared at Aomine under his bleached hair, bending metal rods between his bare hands. "Keep moving," he growled at Aomine, when the waterbender stopped for a closer look.

Aomine ignored this and went in, walking past the mostly empty tables. Ryou was in the kitchen, frowning with concentration as he carefully arranged little carrot flowers on a plate.

"Lunch," said Aomine, poking his nose over Ryou's shoulder. He stole a couple of perfect little five-petaled flowers and crunched them up.

Ryou twitched all over. "A-Aomine-san!" he said, reproachfully, but immediately got on to plating something for Aomine, pouring curry over rice. Aomine ate it leaning against the kitchen table, wandering the stoves and picking out stuff he thought looked good while Ryou sighed and fretted.

"You in tonight?" said Aomine, mouth full.

Ryou shushed him so violently Aomine thought he was going to pop a vein. "I can't," he whispered. "I have to work here tonight- you know, it's the busiest night of the festival, I can't be out and- Aomine-san, please don't talk about the other job here, it's not the right place for- it's just not the place!"

"What are we, stinkweed?" said Aomine.

Ryou gulped. "It's just that-" he said. "The station isn't Red Monsoon territory, Aomine-san." He fidgeted. "If you talk about that kind of stuff here-"

Aomine burped. "Thanks, Ryou," he said, getting up, and slapping the other waterbender on the back. Ryou wheezed, all the breath driven out of his body, and waved Aomine out, just grateful that Aomine-san wasn't talking anymore about the _other_ thing Ryou did for money.

The tough guy was still out there, and when Aomine paused to look up and down the street he squared up to Aomine and said, abruptly, "You the idiot who trashed Narook's?"

Aomine shrugged. "Maybe," he said, straightening to his full height, which brought them eye-to-eye. "What's it to you?"

I'll tell you this for free, since Sakurai's not a bad kid," said the guy. "It's not healthy to be in the Red Monsoons. If Sakurai had any damn sense he'd get out too, before you guys ran into something you _really_ couldn't handle."

Aomine beat down his irritation. He couldn't start a fight on a crowded street, and he couldn't risk being taken in for Narook's, either, and Ryou had come up behind them, except that Ryou wouldn't be any help either, not if he wanted to keep his job.

"Wakamatsu-san!" said Ryou. "Aomine-san is- please don't fight _here_!"

Aomine rolled his eyes and began to walk off. If he hurried he could get in another nap before he had to turn up at the gym.

"I said I'm _talking_ to you," snarled Wakamatsu, grabbing for Aomine's collar and stomping the ground in one smooth movement, scare tactics, throwing Aomine off balance as the earth cracked beneath his feet.

_Now_, Aomine was pissed off. He pulled water from the restaurant and shot it straight at Wakamatsu's stomach, knocking him back and away from Aomine, and followed that with a hit to his chest, slamming the earthbender up against the wall of the restaurant. Wakamatsu gasped as his back hit, trying to summon up another attack.

Ryou was on Aomine in an instant, pulling on his arm, draining away the water, and hissing at him to go, go now, and Aomine, looking around at the shocked faces of bystanders, got going before things got messy.

Behind him, he heard the metal frame of the shop's stall clang noisily as it dropped to the ground.

.0.

Takao sat in the uncomfortable wooden pews in the council room and tried very hard to stay awake. Because he was with Shin-chan, he'd been let in rather than having to stand outside with the squads who had been detailed to accompany the Commander and his retinue, but now Takao wasn't sure he wouldn't rather be out there sweltering in full dress uniform, instead of listening to old people drone on and on about supply chains. There'd been something interesting about pirates off the arctic circle about an hour back, and Takao had sat up to listen when they mentioned his old ship, but that had the only items on the agenda remotely worth listening to, and now it was back to the bureaucratic nonsense. Even the actual council members looked on the verge of nodding off. The Avatar, sitting on the other side of Shin-chan, had given up entirely and was now snoring gently on Midorima's shoulder. Midorima was sitting bolt upright and kept his eyes fixed on Commander Akashi, but his grip on his hand-carved walrus-frog-tooth pencil-holder was slack and he'd stopped pinching Kise to keep him awake twenty minutes ago. Takao figured they taught the attentive face to diplomats' children from birth.

"And that concludes my report," said Commander Akashi. He hadn't even been using index cards. The man truly was inhuman.

Nakatani was the first to stir. "Thank you for that, Commander," he said. Swiftly he kicked Aida Kagetora's chair, who woke with an expression that suggested he'd bitten down on his tongue.

"Yes," said Araki. "There are several matters we will need to discuss, on which your input will be welcomed, but obviously that will come later, during the conference."

Akashi bowed slightly. His gaze turned to the dignitaries who had attended his report. He did not appear to see Kise drooling on Midorima's shoulder, but Kise shuddered all over and jerked awake, elbowing Midorima as he sat up.

Kagetora got up, shaking off sleep. "Everyone, everyone," he called, "In honour of Commander Akashi's return and your attendance at our humble conference, as well as to mark the first night of the Fire Days Festival, I am holding a small gathering at my house tonight, which I hope you will all be able to attend." He winked at the audience. "Open bar, everyone!" A pleased murmur ran through the crowd.

Takao had heard about Aida Kagetora's 'small gatherings'. While the little people of Republic City thronged the city streets, the elite would eat, drink and be merry on the palatial Aida estate, mingling shipping magnates with diplomats of every stripe, Earth Kingdom plutocrats with Fire Nation nobility. And now Takao had an invite. Shin-chan's luck must have been carrying over.

As the meeting broke up and Kise started enthusiastically telling Midorima about his pro-bending team, Akashi beelined for their group, majestically ignoring all the people clamouring for his attention and cutting into their conversation.

Kise managed to stutter out their team's name before he was steamrollered with Commander Akashi's total lack of interest in things he considered inconsequential. Takao actually was following the Lion-Dogs; he had tickets for the next match and planned to cheer for the Avatar's team. He was working on getting Shin-chan to come, if only because once the seventeen-year-old got the stick up his ass dug in permanently, it was never going to come out again.

"You're going to the event tonight at Councilman Aida's estate?" Akashi said.

"Well, said Kise. "Well, we're kind of busy right now and you know what it's like in Republic City this time of year, I mean the traffic and the-"

"You are going to the party at Aida-san's estate," said Akashi.

"Oh," said Kise. "I guess I am."

.0.

Riko... mingled. When she'd been a child, these gatherings had been intensely boring to her; as an adult, she watched the flow of influence and power and was still intensely bored. The Avatar was standing attentively next to the Air Nomad representative, and next to him stood- Riko couldn't remember his name, but she knew that he was the guy whom they were expecting to take over as representative, so that Takeuchi could return to just being elder of Air Temple Island. He wasn't going to have much luck if he couldn't look people in the eye or stop stammering, as he had with her.

Riko looked for her father. He was deep in conversation with the Water Tribe representative, occasionally slapping Nakatani on the back, which the man endured with stoicism. He had arrived with a frankly strange young man carrying a Blue Spirit mask, but it seemed that that boy had escaped her father and his anecdotes, and was now deep in conversation with the Commander of the United Republic Fleet. Riko fleetingly wished she had someone to talk to, then considered that her two best choices would have been Hyuuga or Kiyoshi- _not_ a date, and quickly reconsidered. You'd think that a party with supposed royalty in attendance would have been more interesting. Riko wished she was out instead, maybe at the festival. From the windows of the estate she could see the glow emanating from the city centre.

Imayoshi wandered up to her and then, seeing her expression, changed course and wandered off. Good. Riko wasn't in _any _mood to deal with him and his intimidation, though she wasn't surprised he'd gotten invited. Rats like him managed to smarm into everything.

Riko emerged from a conversation about the upcoming Future Industries electric car and noticed the young man coming up beside her. He must have shaken the Northern Tribe Waterbender.

"Commander Akashi," she said. They'd been introduced before, on Riko's trips to the Fire Nation, but still she felt uncomfortable around Akashi even though they were the same age. He nodded his head to her with exactly the right degree of polite recognition. Commander Akashi would never neglect to greet the daughter of his host. He looked good in his Fleet dress uniform, everything fastened up just right even in the heat of the mansion's foyer. It was just like him to wear it, too, and because of that, every single subordinate at the party was also sweltering, but no soldier dared to be less formally dressed than their commander.

"Aida-san," he said. "It's been a while."

"It has," she said, and they exchanged pleasantries. "Is the second fleet back in for long?"

Akashi's expression changed infinitesimally. "I've left my subordinates in place while I'm back on personal business," he said, and Riko followed the flick of his eyes to Avatar Kise talking animatedly to a guy with classic Fire Nation colouring and whose entire demeanor screamed nobility. Even the creme of Republic City society could not match the breeding in the set of his shoulders. With them was a very tall young man who was not wearing shoes. His clothes, however, were just as expensive and fine as his companion's, the very height of fashion. Riko had just told her tailor that her measurements hadn't changed and not to stifle her with ruffles. Kise, in somewhat less expensive clothes, twinkled at her over their shoulders. Commander Akashi had been the Avatar's firebending master, Riko remembered. There had been jokes about how it was 'traditional' and 'may spirits have mercy on the Avatar's soul'. She wondered what _he_ thought of his protege becoming a pro-bender.

"Fire Nation business?" she said.

"Regrettably," he said. Riko sighed internally. That was Commander Akashi all over- nothing got in the way of his job, not even visitors from the royal court of his home country. "I understand the Avatar has taken an interest in your pro-bending venture?" he added.

Riko eyed him over her glass while she took a fortifying sip. Someone who didn't automatically assume her father was running the pro-bending league? And the question had the ring of interest, not the coolly polite tone he'd adopted all night, or whenever he had to see her. "Yes," she said. "His team is really doing quite well. The championships are coming up and they're quite the favourites."

The _something_ in his face intensified. Distaste? "It seems very frivolous," he said, "for the Avatar to engage in such matters. I cannot understand what his teammates must be thinking."

Well, that answered that question. Frivolous, just like her father. They couldn't all become Fleet Commanders at eighteen, but the chief owner and organiser of Republic City's biggest pro-bending league prudently kept that thought to herself. "I suppose they're thinking they'd like to win," she offered.

"They must be," said Akashi, with the same faint air of offended cat. He extended his gloved hand to her. "Can I get you another drink, Aida-san?"

"Thank you," said Riko, accepting the out with relief. "But no, I've had enough."

There was a sudden stir as from the open doors, an officer pressed through the crowd, heading for Imayoshi. It was Momoi Satsuki. Riko liked the younger girl, sort of, but she didn't know what to think about her and her motley crew, didn't like to think about the trouble they could bring to her arena.

"Captain Imayoshi," panted Momoi. "There's- I mean, there is a matter that requires your urgent attention."

All at once, Imayoshi seemed to lose his perennial air of smarm, striding quickly towards her. Like that, he almost did seem like a stalwart servant of the law. "Thank you, Officer Momoi," he said, and bowed to the room at large. "Please excuse the interruption, ladies and gentlemen. Your tax dollars are always at work."

A polite titter washed through the crowd as they turned back to their socialising, but Riko was standing close enough to hear Momoi say to Imayoshi, "Sir- it's the Red Monsoons," and ice swept up her spine.

.0.

He felt only instinctive, automatic revulsion. The breath caught in Aomine's lungs, forced there by the rush of blood, the rush of power. He stared horrified at what was happening in front of him, the guards on the warehouse hanging in the air like limp dolls, trying futilely to struggle against Mako's hold.

But everything was all too clear in the light of the full moon. Mako's hands moved, and the guard screamed as his arm began, ever so slowly, to twist itself out of its socket. Mako was bending the blood in the guard's body, and blood-bending was a capital crime.

"Get moving," Mako ordered. "I want this place cleared out in three minutes. Any longer, and I might as well start killing."


	19. Book 2: Chapter 6

_Eighteen months ago_

"Alright," said Riko. "Start from the top." She wrapped bandages around the long gash in Hyuuga's arm, glaring impartially around the room. They'd patched themselves up, but badly, avoiding going to a healer which would have immediately raised flags for fighting during the season, and get the Bears noticed by the wrong kind of people. Their ramshackle little team was disliked enough as it was.

They were in Riko's apartment, which was not in anywhere near as nice or as fashionable a part of town as the house she'd grown up in- in fact, Hyuuga thought the whole place could fit into one of the Aida Mansion's bathrooms- but it was hers, a place free from the father who had stamped the Aida name all over Republic City. It had been a while since the last time they'd- alright, just Hyuuga, since Kiyoshi had never even met her- talked to Riko, but she had seen them in the street, limping along, and made up them come up with her, demanding to know what had happened to them. Riko usually got what she wanted. Right now she'd gotten them all to take off their shirts and show her their bruises, built up over four tournament fights. Their actual wounds paled next to this carnage.

It was Hyuuga who finally said, "Kazuya- one of the Reds- He came up to us after practice today and offered us fifty thousand yuan to throw the next tournament match."

"Then what did you tell him?" said Riko.

"I told him for fifty thousand yuan we could just pay the other teams to jump off the platform during the match and if he wanted to waste his money like that he could just shove it up his ass."

"I don't think he liked that," said Izuki. "Or his six other Red Monsoon friends."

"And then what?" said Riko, taking a steaming kettle off Hyuuga's other hand; he'd heated the water for her, much faster than her stove could.

Hyuuga shrugged a shoulder in the direction of a grinning Kiyoshi. "Twinkle-toes over here curbstomped them."

Riko turned her head and stared at Kiyoshi, whose grin dimmed slightly. Her eyes took in his stats now, where they'd been hidden by his clothes before.

"Say," said Hyuuga conversationally. "Riko, did you know that Kiyoshi is a famous earthbender in the Earth Kingdom known as Iron Heart? And that some people say he's one of the best Earthbenders in the world? Did you know that, Riko? Because _we sure as fuck did not_."

"No," said Riko, "but if he didn't tell you, I'm sure he must have had a good reason for keeping it to himself, and we don't want to intrude on his privacy _now do we_, Hyuuga-kun."

"I knew," said Izuki, refreezing his ice pack and trading with Kiyoshi. "But he didn't seem to want to talk about it."

"There's nothing to talk about," said Kiyoshi, sounded pained. "You guys are making a big deal over nothing."

_Master_, thought Riko, and knew that Kiyoshi was a world away from Izuki and Hyuuga and Mitobe and Tsuchi, who'd learnt what bending they did know from watching pro-bending matches, from watching free demonstrations by masters keen to attract paying students, every bit of knowledge they could scrape with their bare hands. Riko had visited the Fire Nation and been astonished by the polished students of the great bending schools, disciplined by years of study. Hyuuga had eaten up every word of description she'd written down or could recall from that visit, trying out firebending kata and forms from Riko's faithful memory that he would never have even heard about otherwise, half a world away from Republic City.

Even Riko had heard of Iron Heart: an earthbending prodigy arrayed among the best benders in the world.

"You should report them," said Riko. "I know the police force is useless but they're not _that_ useless. If the Red Monsoons are gathering muscle, they're going to have to do something about it."

"And say what?" said Hyuuga. "Pro-benders are being bribed to fix matches by this large and powerful blood bending gang, here's all the money we didn't get from them for telling them to piss off. That'll go over well."

"You have to do _something_," said Riko, and hesitated. "I thought," she murmured to Hyuuga. "You said, last year. You didn't want it any more. You were going to give it up."

Hyuuga ducked his head, blushing. Riko's hand tightened on his for a second. "What's your team? How are you doing in the tournament?" she said.

"We're the Bears!" said Kiyoshi.

"Just...Bears?" said Riko, after waiting for a moment.

"Just... Bears," said Hyuuga, and shrugged.

Izuki smiled at Riko from across the room, a little helplessly. It felt like years since they'd all been close like this.

"Semis are a lock," said Hyuuga. He wondered if Riko had been listening to their matches. "Horse-Flies looking to blow past the Water Weasels and land their way into the finals with us."

"We beat Koala-Sloths," volunteered Izuki. "Seto was hanging around with them after the match, didn't look too happy."

"I'll bet he didn't look happy," said Hyuuga. "Word is the leader of the Reds lost almost a hundred thousand yuans betting on the Koalas this season."

Kiyoshi whistled.

Riko blinked. "That much?" she said. "They must have thought it was a sure bet."

"Well, anything's a sure bet when you send some in-sure-rance beforehand to make sure that the opposing team isn't going to make it in," said Izuki. "Kiyoshi took care of them before the match."

Kiysohi looked abashed. "Aw," he said. "Was that what those guys were there for? I thought maybe they just didn't like my face."

Hyuuga rolled his eyes and said to Riko, "He didn't tell us. He just turned up to the match like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and when we won, Reds sent out some less-useless flunkies to see who beat up their boys. They jumped us leaving practice."

"They must have recognised Kiyoshi," said Izuki. "They did try to bribe us first. If yu-want something, you gotta be prepared to ante up the yuans!"

Beat.

"Izuki, jump off the bridge," said Hyuuga.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything," said Kiyoshi, the very picture of dejected manhood. "But I just really thought they didn't like me!"

"We don't like you either," said Hyuuga, "so I guess that's a reasonable assumption." He sighed. "Anyway, if the Reds are gunning for us they must have had a vested interest in having the Koalas place. Horses have Imayoshi for their earth- Gaku's Triple Threat territory, but he hustles there half the time. I'll bet it was supposed to be the Triple Threats vs the Red Monsoons, and our wins are messing up their plans." He subsided against a bright couch as Riko handed him some seeped willow tea. He _was_ upset, Riko noted. Usually Hyuuga didn't like talking about these things in front of her, as though she was the prissy daddy's girl the press liked to make her out to be.

Izuki left, since his family lived close by. Hyuuga and Kiyoshi, with all of Dragonflats to trudge through until they got home, stayed at Riko's insistence. Full moon was dangerous to be out with waterbenders on the prowl.

"No buts," said Riko. "I'll make you guys some supper, and then you can tell me- fully this time- all about how you got mixed up in this. You said you'd never pro-bend again."

Hyuuga immediately choked on his tea. "That's not- you don't have to- we can go back ourselves and-"

Riko fixed him with a stare. "With mobs of vicious gangsters hunting your tail?" she said.

"We can't stay overnight in your place," said Hyuuga. "Your dad will go crazy."

"You two can toss over the couch," she said. "You know where the extra linens are."

.0.

The Pro-Bending Arena, giant and golden, sat on the edge of the waterfront like a girl gone past her prime. Once, it had been the only and greatest Arena in the world; now, as other leagues had sprung up in the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, spectators sometimes preferred to save their money on the tickets and stay home to listen to match broadcasts. And the reputation of Pro-Bending had gotten a little more... tarnished, since Avatar Korra's time. The Arena had never quite recovered from the Equalist terrorist attack.

Everyone knew that old Takeda, though nominal owner of the Arena, was being edged out by the gangs. They charged exorbitant fees to hold matches that were little more than gladiatorial combat, charged even more exorbitant fees for the tickets, and all the while the benders kept at it only because trying to win the lottery was more depressing. At sixteen, Hyuuga and Izuki had tried to make their start as the Cat-Voles; now at eighteen Hyuuga and Izuki had managed to scrape up the dough for one last fight, and scraped up Mitobe for their Earthbender, Koganei for their cheering squad, and Tsuchida for their manager. This was it. This was their last shot. They'd dreamed of being able to make it big as benders, to become great benders, to become great _as_ benders.

"No," said Hyuuga.

Izuki turned to him, surprised. "Hyuuga-"

"I can't," said Hyuuga. "I can't- Izuki, that's your savings. Mitobe, you have a family to feed. _We_ can't afford this. We shouldn't-" he hesitated. "We shouldn't do this after all."

Hyuuga looked down at his feet to contain the words trying to spill out of his throat. He could feel Izuki, Koga and Mitobe exchanging looks over his head. It was time to put away childish dreams; they couldn't work at Mitobe's family's paper forever, they couldn't justify all that time taken out of their lives for a chance that would crash at the first qualifier. He'd told his boss that he was going to go in for the tournament again and the guy had shaken his head and told him he was a waste of a good employee. Thirty thousand yuans. A fortune.

"Hyuuga-" Izuki started to say, but then Flower-Cats poured out of the Arena and, sniggering, surrounded them.

"Yo," said one of them, a sneery little earthbender who'd just been kicked from the Snail-Ducks- figured that only the Flower-Cats would take a petty thug like him. And he had a slow right cross.

"We couldn't help but overhear," said Kazuya. "You know, Jun, you're probably right not to try it again this year. You're really not cut out for it." Narumi, the firebender kid Kazuya had picked up this season- Hyuuga didn't know any other team that practically had to regrow itself every year- said nothing, but cracked his fists.

Hyuuga glared at them. His lip curled. Fucking lowlifes.

"That's really none of your fucking business," said Hyuuga. "Keep walking."

Kazuya walked forward instead. They ended up standing back-to-back while Koga held onto their moneybag and Mitobe tensed up. The Flower-Cats stalked around them in response, forming a larger, loose circle. Koga squeaked.

"Well," said Kazuya. He spread his hands. "We just paid in a _lot_ to get our slots... but if you don't want to go for it, you don't have anything to do with that money, right? Wanna hand it over? Sounds like a win-win to me."

"Fucking _try it_," Hyuuga spat.

Kazuya sighed, turning his back on them. "Jun, Jun," he said. "Always wanting to make things difficult." He turned again, floating a ball of water between his hands. "You _sure_ you don't want to just hand over that money? Or are we going to have to show you just how much of a good thing it is you're not going to be in the tournament anyway?"

Hyuuga answered with fire. Narumi had been moving out of the corner of his eye, and struck now at Mitobe, intercepted by Izuki pulling water from the street. Izuki, not used to street brawling, didn't carry his own water like Kazuya had. Kazuya, whip-quick, dodged Hyuuga's fire ball, throwing ice-shards at Hyuuga's face. One slit his cheek uncomfortably close to his eye, and several peppered his clothing, thrown at too-close proximity to slice through. Hyuuga growled and went for Kazuya's smug face.

Mitobe tore chunks from the road and used them to send Narumi away from Izuki, but Koga, unable to bend, yelled and ducked as Narumi's flashy but weak fire gout went wild. The other team's earthbender flung a slab right at him. Mitobe flung himself backwards, crashing Koga out of the way out of the attack, taking it right on the shoulder.

Mitobe dropped to his knees, face white. "MITOBE!" yelled Koga, distracting Izuki and Hyuuga both. Kazuya got Hyuuga then, again, pummeling him with waterboxing one-two in the stomach, jumping back quickly from Hyuuga's kick trailing fire behind it. Hyuuga over-balanced and went to his knees, gasping for breath. He had to get up- Izuki couldn't handle Narumi without a water source, and Kazuya was going for the easier prey-

Suddenly, the ground shook, throwing them all off balance. Someone very definitely not them yelled "OFFICER! OVER HERE! OFFICER!" which was dumb because no one ever alerted the police to street brawls, why would they? What the hell could the cops do besides turn everything into a massive fuckup? But a frantic whistle sounded, and the Flower-Cats cursed and ran off before whistles could become sirens and one policeman turned into the full metalbending corps, ready to dispense police brutality.

The person who had shouted reached them first, and then after him the officer, her gloved hand sparking and crackling. It took them a long time to convince the policewoman that _they_ weren't the criminals, _they_ hadn't stolen this massive amount of money, and when the policewoman left them, she was shaking her head over the youth of today, wasting good money on nothing but pure hooliganism.

Hyuuga made a rude gesture at her back.

Mitobe and Koga and Izuki, with better manners, turned to thank their helper. He was enormously tall, listening to the goings-on with a raised eyebrow. He had to have been new around here- no true Republic citizen would have bothered interfering in a fight. At best, it was amusing street theatre. At worst it was best to clear out before you were taken out of there in a body bag. His hazel eyes hinted at Earth Kingdom origins.

"Kiyoshi Teppei," said the stranger cheerily. "Earthbender."

They introduced themselves and, in a spirit of mutual exhaustion, gratitude and hunger, took Kiyoshi with them when they went off to eat.

"We'll register tomorrow," said Izuki, when they thought that Hyuuga had been lulled into docility by rice wine and chicken-frog skewers.

"Mitobe's hurt now," pointed out Hyuuga. "He can't bend, and we need three people." He flushed. "You. You need three people."

Mitobe indicated he might not be in tip-top shape, but he was certainly not incapable of fighting.

"That's right!" said Koga. "Though, Mitobe, you might want to take it easy for a while until we can get you to the free clinic."

"He's not going to be well in time to fight in the qualifiers," said Hyuuga. "They're in two days."

"Alright then," said Kiyoshi, who'd been appraised of their plight through dinner. "I'll be your substitute earthbender." He beamed at Mitobe. "Just until he gets better."

Mitobe agreed.

"What a great idea!" said Izuki. It didn't hurt that Kiyoshi had thought Izuki's 'Stick up for your sticks' joke was hilarious. "But do you have anything else to do?"

"Absolutely nothing!" said Kiyoshi, smiling at them. "I've got absolutely nothing. And I'd be glad to do it, though I may not be very good at it."

Mitobe thought this solved all their problems.

"No it doesn't what if he's _not good_?" demanded Hyuuga.

He couldn't be worse than a guy with a busted shoulder, indicated Mitobe.

"Exactly!" said Koga. "So this guy can be a substitute earthbender, and now you can totally go through with the registration. Right now. Before Hyuuga can change his mind again."

"I'm not _changing my mind_," sputtered Hyuuga. "We barely know this guy, and you just want us to go into a team with him?"

"Yes," said Izuki. "I think we'd do well with him."

.0.

And then Hyuuga put down his cup and said, "Fucking hell, Izuki _knew_."

"Knew what?" said Kiyoshi, still manfully struggling with his curry.

"He knew it was you!" said Hyuuga. "You're the one who broke up the fight. That cop wasn't a bender."

Riko rolled her eyes.

"I _thought_ he was a little too eager to add you to the team," said Hyuuga. "He knew you were strong from the start."

Kiyoshi stuffed his mouth full of more curry and looked innocent and bewildered, which fooled Hyuuga and Riko both exactly _none_.

"Well that was fascinating," said Riko. She looked at Hyuuga, still gulping down tea like air. "You're not going to drop out," she said.

"Like fuck we are," said Hyuuga. "We'll just watch our backs a little more now that we know they're gunning for us, that's all. We're not giving up for those fuckers _now_."

Even as he said this- and Riko turned away with that small secret smile on her face, and Kiyoshi beamed at him through heavy sweat- Hyuuga felt an unmistakable qualm. The Red Monsoons hadn't sent errand boys to come get them this Ryou had grown up two floors up from Hyuuga and he was a _good_ bender, objectively a better waterbender than Izuki. Fourteen and already a bruiser for the Red Monsoons. Hyuuga hoped his mother was proud.

Riko checked Kiyoshi again for a concussion, shining a little torch into his eyes. It was good to see Riko again, even if things had been awkward after- well. But Hyuuga couldn't stand Kiyoshi. He had lied to them after turning up out of nowhere and practically forcing his way into their pro-bending team, and he wore that dumb look on his face constantly and he sometimes went around telling people he had been raised by badger-moles.

("Grandma really found them helpful in digging up her garden," Kiyoshi said to Riko. "We had amazing vegetables back there. I really miss them!")

But Hyuuga couldn't get rid of him now. He just wouldn't go.

In the small hours of the morning, before the sun had properly risen, Hyuuga was up already and chivvying Kiyoshi out with him, eager to get back to their home sweet hovel before Hyuuga had to go into work.

"Watch yourselves," said Riko. She leaned against the lamppost outside her house and sipped the tea that Hyuuga had made in apology for inflicting Kiyoshi on her in the early hours. "Don't let Hyuuga overthink himself, Teppei."

"We promise," said Kiyoshi sweetly. Hyuuga glared at Kiyoshi, then offered Riko his exhausted, appreciative smile.

Riko waved them off, then turned to go back inside after checking her mail.

A hand closed on her mouth. Riko immediately threw back her elbow, but the hand didn't move, and as she struggled- and tried to scream, tried to open her mouth enough to bite the hand away, this couldn't happen, how was it happening _here_, it was early morning and surely someone would see, if she could only scream-

_Something_ happened, a dizzying rush of blood and panic and darkness, a vise closing on her throat and lungs. Riko passed out.

. 0.

"Bears," said Imayoshi, waylaying them on their way to the docks. "Heard y'all been looking for me?"

The Red Monsoons had gone to ground after taking Riko, abandoning all their usual hangouts, and it was slipping past evening into night. When the moon rose, the Reds would be twice, thrice as dangerous. They didn't have _time_. Hyuuga slammed the earthbender up against the wall before Imayoshi could blink, could move. He was considerably heavier than he should have been. Imayoshi was in deep with the Triple Threats, Imayoshi captained the Horse-Flies, Imayoshi acted all pally with high-ranking members of the Red Monsoons.

Red Monsoons had left their mark on Riko's open door, the spray-painted scarlet wave. Hyuuga had seen that mark more than once, growing up in Dragonflats. It meant that they wanted you to be afraid someone was gone.

"Bears," said Imayoshi. To do him credit, he never lost that notorious slow drawl. "Ain't this a pleasure."

Hyuuga breathed in. He needed to phrase this just right. Imayoshi was a canny bastard and Hyuuga had no doubt the earthbender would find some way to turn this situation to his advantage. He had to tread carefully.

"Who took Aida Riko, you scum-sucking smirking bastard, _who took he_r?"

"Don't you want Hanamiya fer that?" said Imayoshi after an instant of icy-cold calculation, and then for some reason he looked up at the slowly rising moon, round and full for the second day.

No. Hyuuga knew the reason. They'd attacked the Bears last night because the waterbenders could be assured of being at full strength while the moon was full, and they'd still be strong now, under that merciless white glare. "Did you help him," said Hyuuga, and he was so angry he thought he'd burst with it, the fire crawling under his skin, boiling, and his hand in Imayoshi's stupid damn swishy black coat collar started to scorch the cloth. "Did you help him take her?"

"Ah didn't," said Imayoshi. "Spirits witness, ah didn't. I didn't even know anyone was planning anything of the sort. I swear by the swamp tree."

"Yesterday, today," said Hyuuga. "He was up to something. He didn't take her without help. He had to hole up somewhere. Someone talked. Someone always talks."

"When was she taken?" said Imayoshi, as though the matter was of purely intellectual interest. "Have any of y'all told anyone else about this?"

"No-" said Izuki, trying to pull Hyuuga back. "Hyuuga, we should do that! We should tell the-"

"We can't tell the police, he'll hurt her," said Hyuuga, shrugging off his hand. "That's how they work, that's how these things _always_ work."

"You'd know," said Imayoshi snidely. Hyuuga buried his flaming fist next to Imayoshi's ear. Imayoshi's eyes slit against the heat of it, but he didn't flinch.

"What do you want, Imayoshi?" said Izuki.

"Ah've got something you might be interested in," said Imayoshi. "Sakurai Ryou. Nice kid. Works at Gaku as a dishwasher."

"He's a Red," said Hyuuga automatically. "You know where he is?"

"Better," said Imayoshi. "Since it ain't exactly moral to let a kid take a fistful of fire to the face. He doesn't know anythin' about the Aida girl, but he did cough up to me where the Reds have been headquartering for the last two moons."

"Why should we trust you?" said Izuki. "What's in it for you to tell us this?"

Imayoshi looked at them. And then he said, "Ah'm a cop."

"_Bullshit_," said Hyuuga.

"Ah'm an undercover metalbender investigating the illegal activity that goes on in collusion with ta pro-bending tournament," said Imayoshi. "Ya know these things have always gone hand-in-hand with the gangs. I just made it further in the tournament than anyone expected, tha's all."

"You'd be a better bender if you were a cop," said Izuki.

Imayoshi sighed. "Ah'd be a shit-poor undercover agent, then," he pointed out. He pulled back his sleeve, showing them the distinctive mechanism used by the metalbending cops to fire and winch back flexible metal cables that were weapon, defense and transportation for Republic City's elite.

"Okay," said Kiyoshi, and put his hand on Hyuuga's shoulder. Wincing, he snatched it back. Hyuuga was hot to the touch. "Hyuuga, he must be telling the truth."

"You're a _cop_," said Hyuuga, infusing the word with oceans of loathing.

"Guilty," said Imayoshi, letting the sleeve fall back down. "Or naht guilty, as the case may be. They thought what with me being not from around here, Ah'd fit in better."

"You?" said Hyuuga, still stuck on this one point. "And you've just been letting all this happen, huh? The bribes and the match-fixing?"

"Tha's right," said Imayoshi. "They're taking jus about anyone these days. It's downright shameful."

"Why do you care so much that we're going after the Red Monsoons?" said Kiyoshi.

"Ah hail out of Foggy Swamp," said Imayoshi, his accent suddenly much slower and thicker. "So does Hanamiya Makoto. We're cousins, somewhere up that line. But Mako doesn't trust me the way family should. Shame, ain't it?"

"No one would fucking trust you," said Hyuuga with conviction. "No wonder you got picked for that job. You look dirtier than he does."

"Look, what's it going ta take to convince ya," said Imayoshi. "A signed affidavit from the Avatar himself? Ah don't know where he took Aida. Sakurai was ta only lead I could get. But Mako's not- safe. He's higher up in the Reds than he lets on. He was probably behind ta attempts on y'all, and if they did something like take Aida Riko he's got his hands in it somewhere."

"We have to get her back," said Hyuuga. "Look, cop or not, what did Sakurai say? Where are the Reds now?"

"Sewers," said Imayoshi. "The Red Monsoons like sewers."

.0.

Kiyoshi closed his eyes. Opened them. And then he stomped.

Riko woke with a jerk. Around her the ground quivered, like trucks the size of battleships were pounding by. She couldn't see anything, and her mouth was dry and her arms were tied behind her back. She could hear shouting and cursing, water splashing as feet pounded through them in all directions. She tasted blood, and as she moved her lip she felt the dried blood crack. She must have had a nosebleed at some point.

Her head _hurt_. She could feel thin cloth beneath her covering what she assumed to be rock, still shaking, and as she reached out with her legs, carefully, she encountered walls, a corner. She was lying in the corner on something made of cloth somewhere near pools of water, and the earth was coming apart.

.0.

"What's wrong with you _fucking morons_," said Hanamiya, staring around the circle of waterbenders, all the up and comers of the Red Monsoons, the ones who had maybe five brains between the eight of them. "You didn't think to check who she was first? You've screwed up bad now. Councilman Kagetora would set fire to all of Dragonflats District for his daughter, and you brought her to _HQ_? I thought I told you to grab Iron Heart."

"Look, we reported back about the girl, they said grab the girl. We grabbed the girl. But now we're being raided and everything's going to go to shit. We can't keep her on knockout drops forever and we can't survive being burned out of here."

"Yeah?" said Hanamiya, grinding his teeth. He could guess who had circumvented his orders. "Then maybe it's time for some damn leadership around here."

He didn't have to ask if they were with him. They always were.

.0.

"I really, really hate you right now," said Hyuuga to Kiyoshi. "Riko?"

"She's in there," said Kiyoshi, opening his eyes. "I felt her heartbeat. She's okay, I think. A little scared. No one's with her."

"Mmm," said Imayoshi, whom they hadn't been able to stop from following them. "Ah _do_ hate you. How far down? How many people in there?"

"Not that far," said Kiyoshi. "A lot of people are underground but- they're not all Reds, I think. They just live there. They have mud houses. There are kids. Riko's further down than they are."

"The squatters. Ah'm calling it in," said Imayoshi, reaching back inside his clothes. Kiyoshi reached out and, without turning, caught his elbow and held it.

"You're not calling anything in until we have Riko," said Hyuuga. "I'm going in."

"You're crazy," said Imayoshi. "Hyuuga, yer going to get killed."

"We're going in with him," said Izuki. Kiyoshi nodded.

"Ah stand corrected," said Imayoshi. "Yer all going to get killed."

The Bears went in before Imayoshi could delay them any further, following Kiyoshi through identical tunnels and down damp ladders, the underground expanse of the infrastructure that drained Republic City. They passed knots of people trying to get out of there before the earthquake hit again, and none of them had time to explain to them that it was Kiyoshi, just Kiyoshi, if you could use that to explain away an earthquake in human form.

The first Red Monsoon flunkies were quickly dispatched, Izuki and Kiyoshi securing them to the walls with ice and mud mixed inexorably together. Izuki stayed to mop them up while Kiyoshi and Hyuuga ran ahead, intent on Riko. The gangsters cursed the Bears, but Kiyoshi didn't speak, straining desperately to keep the image of Riko's position in his head, and Hyuuga kept up only by familiarity, by experience, moving as the team they had become. He lit Kiyoshi's way with gouts of fire.

Their second meeting was full of familiar faces: the Red Monsoon waterbenders who had tried to take the Bears down last night, and at their head, Hanamiya Makoto, who bared his teeth at them while they stood ankle-deep in sewer water.

"Hyuuga," said Kiyoshi. "It's full moon." He locked eyes with Hyuuga. "Get Riko first. I'll hold him."

Hyuuga hesitated, a bare moment, looking at Kiyoshi standing there-

"_GO_," roared Kiyoshi, sinking into his stance.

Hyuuga went. Two waterbenders made to snap water whips after his unprotected back, but they smashed on the wall Kiyoshi raised after him, keeping any of the waterbenders from following Hyuuga.

"You're a fool, Iron Heart," called one of them. "It's full moon."

"We're underground," responded Kiyoshi, a quiet statement just on the edge of threat, and began. Stone that had lain cut and shaped and dry for centuries groaned. Their metal bones screamed, forced to snap. The small orange emergency lights along the walls flickered madly and abruptly went out, plunging them into darkness.

.0.

When the lights ran out Hyuuga cursed and flared a flame out into the circle of his fingers, keeping it low and steady, breathing in and out until he could at least use it to see where he was going, though this was down a long curving tunnel anyway, no way to turn right or left. The water around his ankles continued to splash and lap and quiver, in response not to waterbending but to the shocks of earthbending. Unlike Kiyoshi, however, these did not tear at the sewer walls, and they held steady.

He gritted his teeth and started going again, splashing noisily forward. He had to find Riko and get her out of there before-

"You!" he heard a voice. "Are you a firebender? I- help, please help me-"

"Riko!" he cried, surging towards that voice.

"Hyuuga," she said, then "_Ahh_ the light."

Hyuuga immediately covered the flame with his other hand, moving towards Riko slumped against the sewer wall, retching, though there was nothing more to come up. Her hands were still bound behind her back, and Hyuuga burned through them, pulling them off, pulling her against him in relief.

"It's alright," she said. Her arms went around him. "Just let me get used to- I don't know what they used to knock me out. It made me sick, so I was using the wall to get out- they've cleared out of there, whatever it was. Then the lights went out, so I kept following the wall. Hyuuga, what happened?"

"Iron Heart happened," said Hyuuga. "Come on, I left him fighting a whole group of them up the tunnel, and I think the cops are on their way. Who knows what he's doing by now."

Riko sagged against him gratefully. "So hard on Teppei," she murmured.

"Because he's an idiot who tries to do everything by himself," said Hyuuga.

Riko laughed, a watery little half-cough, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Hyuuga couldn't believe he'd let this happen to her. They walked up the tunnel, back to the Red Monsoons, to where he'd left Kiyoshi.

Where they had left Kiyoshi, his knee shattered, his face a white ruin of pain and half the tunnel caved in and carved out by bending. The cops were beginning to pour into the sewers by then, too late to do anything.

And that had been it, really. They'd ended their probending career there and then, and Hanamiya had vanished into the sewers, with the cream of the Red Monsoons. Kiyoshi's leg was shattered so badly the best healers in Republic City couldn't fully mend the damage.

Riko hadn't seen anyone, and probably couldn't have identified them if she had. Without warrants, and because Imayoshi hadn't waited, the cops lost the chance to take them out root and branch, and wasted over a year of undercover work. Instead, in the intervening months a new Red Monsoons arose, shorn of deadwood and with young men at its helm, a vital and dangerous force in the Republic City underground. It was going to be impossible to put in new people for a bit, too, Imayoshi told them, resignedly. The gangs would be on high alert, having taken advantage of the crackdown to install new leadership and reshuffle their ranks.

Imayoshi managed to come out of this smelling like roses, Aida Kagetora kicking him a nice big promotion for rescuing his precious baby girl, the new council golden boy. Riko wasn't _ever_ going to forgive him for that, or, when she confronted him with his knowledge that the gangs had been closing in on the Bears, for his flat statement that taking Hanamiya Makoto down would have been worth crushing the dreams of a two-bit pro-bending team.

The pro-bending tournament had been cancelled abruptly while the police swarmed over it. There were rumors that Takeda was giving it up entirely, that all the money that was supposed to be in the pot was gone and everyone involved in it was under the cloud of suspicion that resulted in the brutal gang crackdown.

Izuki and Mitobe and Hyuuga had come out without any injuries more terrible than fractures, and Riko was largely unharmed, but Kiyoshi was the one they were worried about, when they dragged him back to the surface, and when Kiyoshi heard the healer's verdict- that he would need at least a year to heal before bending again, that he might never be as strong again, that he might never heal fully- Riko caught him in her arms, all the massive strength of him, and felt him shudder into her shoulder as she stroked his hair.

"Sorry, Hyuuga," Kiyoshi said, when they left him. "Sorry."

.0.

Riko had ponied up for Kiyoshi to stay under observation for as long as it was physically possible to tie him to the bed, and when they finally kicked Kiyoshi out of there the ex-Bears and entourage sprang for a cab to carry to Kiyoshi back. They got out, however, not at Hyuuga's place, but at the Arena. They had one of the office rooms set up for a mini-party, with food and drinks. Koganei and Izuki went to help Mitobe bring out some more food, while Riko and Hyuuga fussed over settling Kiyoshi into a chair.

"What're we doing here?" said Kiyoshi, taking a drink and looking around curiously. Riko and Hyuuga looked at each other. She took a deep breath.

"I bought out Old Man Takeda," said Riko. "I talked it over with Hyuuga-kun and the guys- we're going to set up a new league. A better league. Keep pro-bending going in the city. Keep it clean for once."

Kiyoshi gaped. "You can't-" he said. "Riko, it's still dangerous, they didn't catch Hanamiya, they-"

"I thought you were the one," said Hyuuga, looking out the window, looking out over Republic City, "You were the one, who said we shouldn't give up on our dreams."

After the party (and the tears, which everyone pretended not to see and were wept freely into the punch bowl), Hyuuga started trundling Kiyoshi back home in a wheelbarrow before he thought to say, "Riko, I'll walk you back after this."

"No need," said Riko. "I don't live there anymore. I think they're glad to see the back of me- Dad's been Dad, you know, and they still haven't scraped the gang sign off. Makes them nervous."

"What do you mean," said Hyuuga, dumping Kiyoshi into the bed and ignoring his laughing protests that he was perfectly fine with lumpy carpet, "you don't live there anymore? You love that apartment."

"I sold it," said Riko. "We needed the seed money. I guess I'll move back in with my dad, if I have to."

"You could stay with us," Kiyoshi called.

"What, in here?" said Riko, and she meant for it to come out crushing but instead it came out considering, and she looked around with a new light.

"Wait," said Hyuuga, sticking his head in from the closet he called his bedroom. "Wait, what?"


End file.
